Kidnapped
by Ice Princess Xia
Summary: What will the other pilots do when Quatre is kidnapped? But more importantly, will two pilots be able to express their love to each other before it's too late? Yaoi
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with the anime Gundam Wing. I am not receiving any money whatsoever for this and blah blah blah. 

I'd just like to start out by saying that this story has countless plot holes but even though it is my baby right now, I just cannot spend all of my time taking care of every single detail so I hope that the plot holes don't distract too much.

:Please Read This:

This story takes place a few years after the war but I've made a change in one serious outcome. Quatre's father DID NOT DIE during the war! I repeat, Mr. Winner DID NOT DIE during the war BUT the whole Zero incident DID happen.

I'm kind of hesitant to post this because the whole story isn't complete yet but I'm hoping that maybe some positive or negative feedback can drive me to write more. I hope that readers enjoy it and review. Thanks!

Warnings: Mild violence, yaoi (guyXguy pairing), swearing. You know the works.

* * *

The entire property and mansion of Mr. Winner was proudly lit up and lively with chattering business executives from all over the galaxy enjoying the last hours of the year. Of course Mr. Winner's only son Quatre Raberba Winner was here as well along with his four companions Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Chang Wufei and Duo Maxwell. Every year, Mr. Winner would hold a huge New Year's Eve party and every year Quatre dreaded it. He was always paraded around by his father and introduced to everyone in the room and then waved off when important business came up. Quatre loved his father very much but sometimes the man could be very harsh towards his son without really realizing it or meaning to.

Quatre had hoped that this year would be different because it was the first year after all of the fighting that his companions were able to attend. Unfortunately, nothing changed as Quatre was again forced to greet people with a fake smile and a firm handshake. Occasionally, Quatre would steal a glance over to his friends, who had been forced into a corner of the giant ballroom, where they stood and spoke softly to one another.

He took a quick glance around at everyone there. The party was actually a lot more casual this year as far as the attire everyone was in and even the looks on people's faces. Everyone seemed a lot more relaxed now that the war and post war affairs were finally over. Quatre sighed for the hundredth time that evening and was forced back into petty conversation.

Even though the war was long from over, Quatre's empathy was still picking up emotions from all over the place. He felt feelings of boredom, excitement and even jealousy but Quatre, having learned a bit more control, kept his cool. During dull moments in conversation, Quatre would try to pinpoint the emotions of the executive he was forced to listen to at that moment to see if they were sincere or not with the praises they were sending his father. Quatre knew that this was probably wrong of him but he also needed more practice and he figured that if he were to become the president of Winner Corp one day, he would need to know exactly who he could trust.

Finally, as the last few minutes of the year were ticking down, Quatre had a moment to himself. He solemnly walked out onto a currently empty balcony and rested his elbows on the banister. He released a deep sigh again and wondered where the other pilots had gone.

'They more than likely were bored to death and left for home. I feel horrible that I wasn't able to see much of them at all; I was just excited that they were even able to come this time.' Quatre's thoughts were interrupted by very quiet footsteps behind him Slowly Quatre turned his head to try and catch a glimpse of the approacher and was both shocked and relieved to see that it was Trowa.

"Oh Trowa, it's you. You guys are still here?" Quatre turned to face Trowa as he joined him in leaning against the banister.

"Of course we're still here, where would we have gone?" Trowa looked to Quatre with a slightly confused face.

"Well…I guess I just thought that since everything is so boring that you guys would've left to go home. I feel bad for even dragging you here. I thought that since dad knew that I had friends here he might let me just mingle on my own but I just couldn't get away, I'm sorry I…" Quatre's rambling was interrupted as Trowa put a finger to his lips and smiled.

"Quatre, don't worry about it. We all came here willingly knowing what the setting would be and we've all stayed for our own reasons, be it you or the large buffet table…or both." Quatre blushed and chuckled a bit while thanking Trowa for his kind sentiments. Trowa bowed his head to Quatre and began to walk back into the house. Right before he had reached the doorway, he turned and spoke again.

"Oh. Duo was looking for you earlier. He said something about counting down the seconds all together and parading around in the nude as his first act of the New Year so you might want to find and stop him."

Quatre nodded and chuckled again, "Alright, I'll be inside in a few and I'll find you guys." Trowa nodded and proceeded inside. Quatre resumed his position on the balcony and thought of what might happen if Duo followed through with his plan.

'I can only imagine the look on father's face. Duo would never be allowed to come here again, that's for sure.' Quatre's thoughts got serious fast as he thought about the pilots, the end of the past year and all that happened and things that had developed during it. In the midst of his thoughts, he formed his New Years resolution and was determined to follow through with it. 'I am going to tell him the truth and my feelings. I'll die before I let this go on without him knowing how I feel.'

Quatre thought in silence and checked his watch. 'Whoops, I'd better get back inside. Only a few minutes left…' Just as Quatre turned to leave, for the second time that evening he heard footsteps behind him.

* * *

Back inside, Duo was getting anxious.

"Where is he? You told him to meet us in here, right Tro?" Trowa nodded and silently searched the crowd for the blonde. Wufei rolled his eyes.

"Would you calm down Maxwell? He's still got a minute or so, he'll make it." Duo stuck his tongue out at Wufei who just rolled his eyes again and sighed. "I don't see why this is so important to you anyway."

"Look, it just is okay? We've all battled through so much. I just thought it would be nice to finally spend a New Year's Eve together when we weren't fighting for our lives or waiting for our next mission or separated on different colonies." Duo crossed his arm in annoyance and snuck a glance over to Heero as the crowd around them began grabbing champagne for the last sixty seconds.

Duo grumbled and thought to himself. 'What is taking him so long?' With not a second to spare, Duo lost his patience. He looked for an opening in the crowd and dashed through toward the balcony that Trowa had said Quatre was occupying.

"Duo!" Heero called after him but with luck of catching his attention.

"Damn that Maxwell, if he weren't so impatient. Now Winner will probably show up and Maxwell will be gone looking for him." Heero shook his head at Wufei and started off toward the crowd where Duo had slipped through.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside on the balcony, Quatre was weighing his odds. A man in a black ski mask, hole-filled jeans and a plain gray t-shirt stood in front of him holding a gun equipped with a silencer.

"What do you want with me?"

"Take a wild guess rich boy." The man's voice was quite deep as he readied the gun to fire. "Are you gonna come peacefully?" Just as the man spoke, Duo showed up at the balcony and was about to yell at Quatre to hurry but quickly took in the scene and hid himself just inside the doorway.

Quatre couldn't help but smirk at the man in front of him knowing quite well that he could take him out with his hands tied behind his back as well as his rather muscular partner in crime. He heard the man growl at his reaction and he raised his gun as behind them the crowd was cheering and the final countdown began.

"Ten!"

As the guests screamed the first number, Quatre's fist was flying towards the man's face only to collide instead with his unarmed hand. In a split second the man let go of Quatre's fist and threw a punch of his own which struck the blonde in the stomach sending him stumbling backwards. The man grew angrier and immediately shot at Quatre just as he has regained his balance but to his disappointment was only able to clip the blondes' upper arm. Duo jumped as he looked on and thought out plans to try and help but was also shocked to see that Quatre hadn't even flinched and continued to stare the man down.

"Nine!"

"I'll have you know boy that I've got a sniper aiming for your father's forehead as we speak and if you'd like for him to die then try that again!"

"Eight!"

"And believe me kid, I would just love to kill your father so don't test me Quatre, or should I call you 04?" Quatre gulped.

"Seven!"

Duo couldn't hear any of the conversation over the cheering of the crowd but by observing Quatre's sudden change in demeanor, he could tell that it was bad.

"Six!"

"Sounds like you've got five seconds to decide or your dear old dad gets shot. What'll it be 04?" Quatre scowled at the man and kept himself from panicking. Through gritted teeth he spoke.

"Five!"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Four!" The man shoots again this time hitting Quatre's leg and sending Quatre down on one knee.

"Three!"

"Dammit!" Duo cursed under his breath and could only watch as Quatre lost his stance. Duo's indecision wouldn't let his body act on anything. 'I'll only make it worse if I go in there but if I don't, they'll take him or worse kill him on the spot and I refuse to let that happen!'

"Two!"

The cheering commenced as Quatre clutched his leg in pain and felt as warm blood began to stain his khaki pants.

"Quatre, you've not much time left!" The man reached for a walkie-talkie and pressed down the button to connect to the other end.

"One! Happy New Year!"

"Shoot him!"

"No! I'll go, I'll go!"

The man smirked and looked down at Quatre who couldn't help but have angry tears in his eyes. The man grabbed Quatre by his collar of his shirt and pulled him closer so that he could whisper in his ear.

"There was no sniper Quatre, a man with your experience should've known that." As the man pulled back, Quatre began to struggle under his grip and more tears rolled down his cheeks. The man held tightly before finally knocking Quatre unconscious.

"Happy New Year Quatre."

The crowd roared in excitement as balloons were released and confetti flew everywhere. Duo glared daggers at the man in the ski mask as he ordered his lackey to carry Quatre's body along.

"All too easy…"

Duo growled and held himself back from pouncing on the man as he walked away with Quatre in tow. Looking around for a moment, Duo found a napkin and quickly scribbled on it. Once the two men were out of sight, Duo sprung into action only slowing for a moment to gaze upon the spot where Quatre had just been and the puddle of blood that his wounds left behind.

* * *

"Well so much for Duo's plans…" Heero worriedly thought aloud and searched for any sign of his two companions.

"Where could they be…unless…" Trowa spoke softly and glanced over at Heero who simply shrugged back at him.

"The thought had crossed my mind…"

Impatiently, Wufei ignored their conversation and decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Barton, which balcony?" Trowa pointed to the balcony straight across from where they were standing and Wufei took off followed closely by the others. Upon arriving, the three pilots could find no sign of Quatre or Duo. They stepped onto the empty balcony and shrugged at one another. It was Heero that finally noticed a napkin stuck to the door frame with a fork. He approached it and first read it silently to himself.

"Guys, I think I've got something over here…" Heero looked up as Trowa spoke after him.

"I don't think it's quite like what I found." Trowa and the approaching Wufei and eventually Heero kneeled down to stare at the puddle of what seemed to be fairly fresh blood. Heero glared at it and could only wonder who it belonged to.

"I'll kill whoever did this." As he spoke, Heero handed the napkin he had found to Trowa who read silently and passed it to Wufei who read it aloud angrily.

"Quatre kidnapped.

No time.

In pursuit.

-Duo"

"It must've happened during all the celebration…" Trowa's expression grew more worried as he thought of Quatre and Duo being kidnapped and fifty different scenarios began playing on repeat in his mind 'This just can't happen…it can't.' He rubbed his eyes for a moment and spoke aloud again, "What should we do?"

* * *

The braided pilot quickly and silently followed the pair of idiots that had kidnapped Quatre. 'They are going to be sorry for this. I may not have been able to do anything before but I sure as hell will now. The fact that they even laid a finger on Quatre…' Duo growled under his breath. After about a half hour of walking, Duo hid himself behind a tree as the two in front of him had seemed to stop. Duo snuck a look around and saw that they had settled at a campsite in a pretty obvious clearing. 'Well, they're definitely not experienced at this…' Duo thought to himself and watched as they not so gently dropped Quatre to the ground. He tried his best to listen to their conversation.

"We'll move out in the morning. With that prick Mr. Winner busy with his party guests, he's not gonna notice his dear son's disappearance so we should be safe for a while."

"Call the others and tell them to start prepping for the next stages of the plan. In the meantime, I'll watch the boy; you just keep your eyes and ears open for anything." The first man nodded and finished tying Quatre's wrists with rope as the second man smiled maniacally at the sight.

Off in the distance, Duo could only glare and hope that the other pilots had figured it out and were on their way. Duo was just about to make his move toward the campsite when suddenly his watch began to vibrate on his wrist. He looked down at it just as Heero appeared on the small screen.

* * *

Back at the mansion, Heero and Wufei were still inspecting the balcony while Trowa had been sent off to find Mr. Winner and tell him the news. Finding nothing of any real value to them, the two remained as calm as possible while waiting for Trowa to return.

"Isn't there any way to reach them? I can't just sit here anymore!" Wufei was losing his composure. They had been searching and waiting for almost a half hour since they had found their friends to be missing. Heero shook his head at Wufei's impatience as his thoughts were full of worry for Quatre and Duo. 'Poor Duo. I can't believe that this is happening…not now after all the planning I went through…' Suddenly, Wufei's question reached Heero's worrying brain and an idea was spawned.

"Was Duo wearing his watch?"

"Yeah…he said he definitely needed it to count down the seconds." Wufei paused momentarily and was about to ask what that had anything to do with their situation when suddenly the dots connected in his head and he was immediately at Heero's side.

Heero moved as quickly as he could as he too remembered. On a particular mission, the five pilots had to split into two teams but still keep in constant contact. Heero gave Duo and Wufei a watch that doubled as a small communicator and gave them a quick explanation of how to use it. Since Wufei refused to wear it, Duo took it and ever since, he'd been wearing it as a regular watch. Finally, Heero was able to get a signal with his own watch and Duo popped up on his mini-screen.

"Duo, thank god, where are you? What's happened?" Heero bombarded Duo with questions and impatiently waited for his answers. On the other end, Duo spoke in a hushed whisper.

"I followed the guys into the woods behind the mansion. They're at a campsite in a huge clearing back there. There are only two of them here but I think there are more and as you can tell, they're not exactly experienced in the usual okay-we've got him run like hell-kidnapping tactics."

"Which one of you is wounded?" Wufei looked over Heero's shoulder and waited for a response.

"Quatre. Shot twice. Nothing too bad but it's not like he got any medical attention." Duo mumbled a few obscene things under his breath but Heero just moved ignoring him.

"Do you have any idea why they took Quatre?"

"I think they want him as bait; that they're really after his father. I couldn't really…oh shit!" Suddenly Heero and Wufei heard a struggle on the other end before the picture turned to static leaving the two to ponder what more than likely just happened at the campsite.

"Dammit!" Wufei yelled and began to pace again as Trowa finally returned.

"What's happened?"

"We just contacted Duo but we were cut-off. It seems that he's been captured as well but he was able to tell us a little info."

"And?"

"Quatre's been shot twice but nothing fatal and currently they're in a large campsite in the woods right behind us."

Trowa sighed at hearing the news of Quatre's injuries and tried not worry. "Can you track their location at all?"

"Not without my laptop and even with it, unless part of that watch is still together and functional, I can't do much else."

"Well, what can we do now?" Wufei had to keep pacing to keep himself from jumping down someone's throat.

"All we can really do is move quickly, search the forest for that clearing and hope that something is still there."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Just as the there were walking away, Mr. Winner approached with two bodyguards.

"What is going on? Where is my son?"

"Mr. Winner, we really don't have time to…" Heero was cut off by Mr. Winner's yelling.

"Tell me what is going on this instant!" Trowa spoke up before Heero could say something he might regret.

"Sir, we're going to lose your son if we don't go now. You have to be patient." When Mr. Winner wouldn't budge, Heero spoke through gritted teeth and this time Trowa couldn't and didn't really want to stop him.

"He's been kidnapped by a group of men but we're not sure of who they are just yet. Right now, they are somewhere in your backyard, Quatre's wounded and we think that the whole kidnapping is a ploy to try and kill you. Happy?" Mr. Winner grew more shocked with every sentence our of Heero's mouth. Again, Wufei's patience drew thin.

"Now if we can go, we might just be able to save our friends." Mr. Winner nodded in awe and watched the three of them run off.

End

* * *

Well I hope that readers enjoyed the first chapter. There are many more to come if you want to read more. Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading! 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything with Gundam Wing. Please don't sue! I'm a poor college kid!

Thank you to the people that reviewed the first chapter! I appreciate it so much! I'm going to try my best to post this story because it has literally been my baby for the longest time but I must say that this semester at college is going to be killer so please bare with me.

Enjoy the second chapter! Review Please!

Chapter 2

"…I couldn't really…oh shit!" Duo looked up to see the man in the black ski mask looming over him. Immediately, the man grabbed Duo and roughly slammed him against the tree he'd just been hiding behind. Duo struggled in the man's grip and was able to land a strong kick to his left shin but in an instant the man in the ski mask delivered a frighteningly strong punch to Duo's cheek and sent his head backwards into the tough bark of the tree. After the hard blow to his a head, a very dazed Duo had no choice but to follow as the man forced him to the campsite. Throwing him to the ground, the man spoke.

"Look who I found snooping." The other man looked down at Duo as he tried to pick himself up off the ground but was stopped by a heavy foot slamming onto his upper back. "He was talking to someone, he told them our location. We need to move now."

"How did he even contact them?"

"I'm not exactly sure but we'll have to figure it out later. Get moving Kale!"

"Right away Axel."

Duo was quite relieved to hear that they didn't know about what his watched could do but decided to focus more on the task at hand. Regaining a bit of his strength, Duo struggled under the man's foot but the man in the ski mask (aka Axel) held firmly. While he was pinned, Duo looked up to observe Kale. He too wore beat-up jeans and a t-shirt though his was advertising some old alcoholic beverage and could barely cover up the man's huge muscles. His bald head reflected the moon quite nicely as he began gathering and throwing things into a big duffle bag. Silently on the ground nearby, Quatre stirred. The first thing he felt was pain and the second was Duo's presence.

"D-Duo?" Quatre turned his head and his eyes met with Duo's but before any more could be said, Quatre received a swift kick to the stomach.

"Quatre!" Duo was silenced with another kick to his back and was then tied up as Quatre had been before. After Duo was secured, Axel kicked him again and walked away to help the man (aka Kale) pack up what little supplied they had. Duo attempted conversation again.

"Quatre, are you okay?"

"Quit your yapping maggot!" Kale ended their conversation by pressing a gun to Duo's temple. Both Quatre and Duo's eyes grew wide as Kale leaned closer to their faces.

"Talk again and see what happens."

Kale pushed himself off of the ground and away from the boy's faces, much to their relief, and continued packing the supplies.

Duo took in a few deep breaths before looking to Quatre to make sure that he was alright. The blonde nodded firmly to him and silently watched the two men moving around them. By now, Axel had removed his black ski mask to reveal his dark reddish brown hair and rough facial features. He was actually quite tan which especially highlighted the red in his hair and the blue in his eyes. Within minutes, they were finished and approached the boys with guns in plain sight.

"Are you gonna get up and go silently or am I gonna have to help you along?" With another glance to one another, Duo and Quatre agreed to stick with the first option and slowly began to stand. Kale pulled them both to their feet and immediately the two were roughly gagged and blindfolded.

­­(Back at the mansion)

Mr. Winner gazed off into the distance from his place on the balcony and could only wonder where his son was right then. Just the thought made the man angry and overwhelmingly sad at the same time. A tap on his shoulder awoke him fro his thoughts and he turned to face one of his assistants.

"Excuse me sir but your guests are starting to wonder what's going on and the fireworks cannot begin without your toast first."

Mr. Winner sighed deeply and nodded to his timid assistant, "Just give me a moment." The assistant nodded and re-entered the mansion as Mr. Winner took one last glance toward the trees and followed.

(somewhere in the trees)

Running as fast as their legs could carry them, Heero, Trowa and Wufei attempted to track Duo and Quatre down. About halfway into the woods, the three had seen a few subtle hints that Duo had left behind and followed them hoping that they wouldn't be too late.

Finally they were able to see the clearing. Heero got there first and with a quick glance around, he found that not much was left behind but it might be enough to get some leads.

"Let's not waste time here just yet. They couldn't have left too long ago; we might able to end this now." Trowa and Wufei nodded to Heero and continued.

(back at the party)

Mr. Winner approached the microphone with a fake smile. Though he really didn't want to, he had to make a toast to the evening and he figured that the sooner the fireworks ended, the sooner everyone would leave and he could be left alone with his thoughts. All of the guests looked to him with curiosity quite eager to hear what he had to say.

"Well, Happy New Year everyone," Mr. Winner paused as people cheered and applauded. "I am very happy to have had all of you here in my home for the joyous occasion and I hope that you all feel the same way. I sincerely apologize for the long wait. I could be professional and say that I was off doing business, but let's be honest; I spilled a little wine on my shirt and quite frankly I just had to call on my bodyguards for advice on a new one." Again, Mr. Winner paused as a few people chuckled at his attempt at a joke. "But seriously, this year is a new beginning for more and better opportunities and I expect all of us to take advantage of it."

Mr. Winner raised his glass to the crowd and everyone else mirrored him. "I toast to all of you, to healthy and successful lives and to a productive year!" Everyone drank from their glass and cheered. "Now please, gather outside and enjoy the fireworks!"

Mr. Winner watched as all of his guests moved to windows and balconies to wait for the amazing light show. He sighed to himself, rubbing his temples.

(with the kidnappers)

Quatre and Duo stood close to one another as they were led up a large hill by Axel and Kale. Trying to delay the process, Duo would intentionally slip on something in hopes that he the other three were on their way but was only beat on and rushed along even more. Poor Quatre was constantly falling somewhat behind because of his wounded leg and also received a beating or two. After about twenty minutes of walking, both Duo and Quatre heard footsteps not too far off behind them. They immediately walked closer to each other and soon Duo discreetly tapped Quatre's elbow with his own. Quatre responded with two taps before suddenly using his body weight to drop both Duo and himself to the ground.

"What the…" Kale was cut off when a shot was fired from Heero's gun. Kale and Axel immediately retrieved their own guns and looked behind them to see Heero, Trowa and Wufei. Off in the distance, fireworks were heard from Mr. Winner's party providing the perfect cover for all the gunfire that was about to take place. Disregarding their hostages, Axel and Kale began firing back into the darkness and moving to safer territory as the three pilots did the same.

With the firefight going on above them, Duo and Quatre were working off their gags. Once free, they formulated a plan.

"Man, they are horrible kidnappers…"

"Duo now's not the time. Can you get your hands free?"

"No, that's the one thing they did right but I mean anybody can tie a…"

"Duo!"

"Okay, okay. Here's the plan. Find our two kidnappers, while still blindfolded kick their guns away and then their faces and run like hell down the hill until we reach the others." Quatre gave Duo a look even though the braided boy couldn't see it but eventually gave in.

"Fine."

Quatre began creeping toward the person to the right of them while Duo went in the opposite direction. Axel and Kale were too busy dealing with the other three pilots to notice that their hostages were free but Trowa immediately alerted the others to be wary with their shots as he saw Quatre creeping up behind Axel.

Using their acute hearing, Duo and Quatre were both able to locate their kidnapper by the shots from their guns. Once they felt they were close enough, Duo and Quatre followed through with their plan. Quatre immediately tripped Axel from behind which caused him to drop his gun and fall backward giving Quatre the opportunity to give him a swift kick to the face. Duo simultaneously knocked out Kale by simply kicking him hard in the back of his head. Kale fell to the ground like a rock.

"Bigger they are, harder they fall." Duo smirked to himself before meeting Quatre back where they had fallen.

"Run like hell!" Quatre called to Duo right before they met back up and they both began jogging carefully down the slope with their blindfolds still on. Guns still poised, the other three yelled out to them trying to guide them down. They were about halfway there when Axel stood with his gun again. Before anyone noticed, he shot and his aim rang true as a bullet embedded itself into an unprotected shoulder.

"Heero!" Quatre stopped running as a pain arose in his chest from Heero's sudden burst of emotion. Heero clutched his bleeding shoulder and grimaced in pain but still raised his gun to try and shoot back at Axel.

Duo, who had stopped when he heard Quatre stop then fall to his knees, turned to the blonde.

"Quatre, we've got to run!"

Taking in the scene, Trowa turned to Wufei only to see that he had already started running toward Duo and Quatre to help. Trowa then turned back to the struggling Heero to direct him to safety and continue shooting at Axel in his place. Back on the ground, Quatre was breathing deeply and trying to overcome the pain with Duo right there by his side.

"Duo, look behind…!" Before Wufei could finish his warning, Kale was already holding a very surprised Duo at gunpoint. Immediately, all gun fire ceased as everyone stopped what they were doing to view the scene. One look from Kale stopped Wufei in his tracks but the Chinese boy still raised his gun to the man.

"Let. Them. Go."

"Now, now you don't want poor innocent Duo to get shot, do you? You've already got on injured you don't really need another." Kale smiled maliciously at Wufei. Meanwhile, Trowa never took his aim from Axel as he walked down toward the others. Heero looked on from behind the tree and signaled to Trowa to make his way over there too. Following Heero's orders, Trowa slowly began moving parallel to Axel until he was just behind Wufei. On the ground, Quatre was afraid to move in fear that he or one of his friends might get shot. He was forced to his feet by Axel and felt as the cold metal of Axel's gun was pressed to his temple.

"Drop your guns. Now."

Wufei and Trowa glanced at one another for a split second before laying their weapons on the ground and taking a few steps back from them.

"Yours too 01."

"Come on Kale, Axel. He's wounded, he can't shoot anything!" Duo was shut up by Kale's gun being pressed harder against his temple. Duo shot a quick glance to Trowa and Wufei who nodded discreetly. Axel watched Heero closely until he saw him throw his gun toward them. Kale smirked once again and he and Axel began to climb the slope yet again.

"I think you know the rules. No guns until we're out of sight and even then I don't suggest you use them. Later." Fireworks boomed off in the distance still as Duo and Quatre were led away again with everyone looking on sadly.

Behind his tree, Heero cursed profusely, 'We were so close…damn it.' Heero clutched his shoulder and felt where warm blood was oozing from his wound. Once the group was basically out of sight, Wufei and Trowa reclaimed their guns and retreated back to their fallen friend who was attempting to stand.

"Heero, easy. Don't strain." Heero ignored Trowa and kept moving. Quickly, Wufei checked over the wound much to Heero's objection.

"How the hell did he even hit you? It's the dead of night; he had just gotten off of the ground from a kick to the head and yet he somehow nailed you."

"Luck, that's all." Heero pushed past the two of them only to be stopped by Trowa again.

"At least wrap your shoulder or something, you'll bleed to death."

"We've got to get back to the campsite and look around. There could be something that can help us find where they're going." Before anyone could stop him, Heero began walking back the way they had come. Knowing that there was no compromise with Heero, Trowa sighed and followed with Wufei close behind.

(mansion)

As the fireworks came to an end, Mr. Winner continued to stare at the sky hoping that Quatre's friends had had some luck with them that night. He was again jarred from his wonderings as guests began their good-byes. The father faked a smile and thanked everyone for coming as they all made their way to the doors.

(kinappers)

Kale, Axel and their two captives had finally reached their final destination. The kidnappers took in a deep breath and released a sigh of relief as the big warehouse doors opened in front of them. Duo and Quatre were pushed ahead and immediately smelled the rank stench of sewage. Axel and Kale untied the ropes from and Duo and Quatre's wrists but still held them firmly as they continued to walk through the big room. What the two prisoners couldn't see were the confused looks that decorated everyone's faces. Everyone in the warehouse stopped what they were doing to stare as the two were stumbling along.

"You two," Axel pointed to two random men in the warehouse and beckoned them over. "Take these two to the back room and guard the door." Then Axel spoke to the entire group, I don't want to hear a peep out of anyone. No questions just follow our orders."

Suddenly new hands were upon the pilots as they roughly pulled the two boys' arms and shoved them through a doorway and into another room. The boys stumbled in and heard as a door slammed behind them and was then locked several times. Duo rubbed his sore wrists gently before removing his blindfold and taking in their new environment.

The room was a relatively small square with no windows, no furniture, and only one dim light that hung from ceiling in the middle of the room. Besides the door, which didn't have a door knob on the inside, the only escape route was a small vent in one corner of the room which couldn't even fit Duo's head let alone he and Quatre. Duo scratched his forehead and thought to himself.

'So basically no lock to pick, no vent to climb through, not even a nasty old mattress to sleep on…this could be a challenge…' To his right, Duo heard as a still blindfolded Quatre slid down the wall slowly and he looked at the blonde worriedly.

"Quatre, Q-ball, are you okay? I mean…do you need medical assistance? I mean…oh boy…I'm sorry." Duo sighed at himself and gently walked over to Quatre and removed his blindfold. With a blank face, the blonde looked around the room slowly before looking straight at Duo.

"Do you know where we are?"

"Other than what we can see, I know nothing. It didn't seem like we walked too much longer after the…" Duo stopped himself as he saw Quatre's face drop. "What's wrong? Talk to me."

Quatre sighed and looked at Duo again, "We were so close and I screwed it all up…again."

"What do you mean again?" Duo slid along the wall to plop down next to Quatre and listen intently.

"I've just…I've been so stupid throughout this whole endeavor. It's like you said, the only things these guys have really been good at so far are tying knots and shooting a gun. There were so many times that we couldn't escaped. And if I hadn't been so damn stupid in the first place I could've made it to count down the seconds."

"Okay, I'll get to the self-loathing in a minute but first, tell me what happened on that balcony?"

"You couldn't hear?" Duo blinked at Quatre's question.

"How did you…?"

"My empathy, remember? I can feel the people closest to me the best which is both good…and bad."

"Oh…right. But if you knew I was there, aren't you mad that I didn't try to help?" Quatre shrugged at him.

"Nah, when I focused in on you I could sense your confusion. If you had tried to help with a doubt in your mind, you could've caused a lot more damage to both of us. Besides, if you hadn't been there no one would've known what happed to me and I'd be all by myself right now. I hate to have you dragged into this, but it's also kind of nice to know that I've got someone else with me." Duo blushed at this and desperately tried to change the subject.

"Well, I'm glad you're not alone either. So, what happened?" Quatre sighed as he recalled all that happened.

"He seemed really flaky, Axel I mean, but when I tried to attack he was quick. He shot his gun and just barely cut my upper arm." Quatre moved to show Duo the very minor injury. "To be honest I barely even felt it. I was confident that the whole situation would end up being nothing."

"Yeah, you didn't even flinch after the gun shot. Even I jumped at that. So what changed?"

"He told me that he had a sniper ready to kill my father at any time. Stupidly, I was caught off guard. At first I figured that he was bluffing but something about him seemed so serious. I didn't know what to do and I couldn't get my emotions under control enough to try and sense Axel's. I realized that I didn't really have a choice in the matter and arrogantly expressed it so he got frustrated and shot me again. He just missed the bone in my leg."

Duo checked over Quatre's leg wound for a moment before looking back at him. "Does it hurt much?"

"I've had worse. It hurt like hell when it happened though. The crowd kept counting down. They got to one and Axel told the sniper to shoot my dad but I told him to stop and that I would go with him. He grabbed me and told me that there never any sniper then knocked me out."

"Damn him…I owe him a lot of shit. I'm surprised I didn't throw up from a concussion when he slammed my head into that tree." Quatre looked at Duo concerned.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I was just happy to have even kept up with you. I mean, I was kinda hoping to rescue you and all that but…uh…well here we are." Quatre chuckled a bit at Duo and leaned his uninjured shoulder again him gently while also looking around at the room again.

"It's not quite what we're to, eh? I don't suppose we could complain though."

"Not unless we wanted it repainted with our blood!" Duo and Quatre both smiled at each other.

"Now see, that's the Quatre I know. Joking, laughing and smiled even in a shitty situation. No more self-loathing, you hear?" Quatre chuckled.

"Well, I can't make any promises but I'll try my best…for you." They smiled at each other again before quickly looking in opposite directions to avoid revealing the blush on both of their faces.

(somewhere in the warehouse)

"What was that scene all about?"

"What do you mean?" Axel looked at Kale questioningly as he spoke.

"How did he know exactly who got shot in the dead of night with a blindfold still on?"

"Don't you know?" When Kale shook his head, Axel sighed, "You are really hopeless sometimes. Quatre can use empathy to feel other people's emotions. And the people he's closest to can hit especially hard if they have a sudden outburst of emotion like 01did. Get the picture?" At this, Kale smiled cruelly.

"I think it's time we put together a little experiment, don't you think?"

(with H, T &W)

Back at the campsite, the three pilots were searching to no end for any clues but eventually they decided to just bring everything they had there back to be looked at later. They ended up collecting a collapsible tent, a few blankets and some photos of very complicated shoe prints in the dirt. About halfway back to Mr. Winner's mansion, they had to stop when Heero lost his balance and almost collapsed from his injury.

"Heero, you can't push yourself like this…" Wufei looked at the now very pale boy and frowned.

"We're almost there, we can't stop now. I'll be fine. If I need to stop and rest for a second, I'll tell you but now I'm better so let's get going."

"Alright, we'll go but you have to promise that once we get to the mansion, you are going to rest." Rolling his eyes at Trowa, Heero nodded and began walking again.

Hesitantly, the three moved on with Heero in front and the other two following close behind keeping an eye on their injured friend.

(mansion)

Mr. Winner sat and impatiently waited for the three pilots to return with either his son or a plan of how to retrieve him. As the night slowly began to turn to morning, the man had almost given up hope when he suddenly heard noise coming from outside the window. Mr. Winner immediately rose from his chair and rushed to the balcony.

"Quatre?" Mr. Winner sighed deeply upon seeing that his son was not present and readied himself for the worst.

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes, sir." They paused and heard as Mr. Winner sighed in relief.

"Quatre seemed to be alright for the most part but he is still in enemy hands." Heero spoke despite Trowa's urgings for him to go inside. Trowa interrupted them.

"Mr. Winner, do you think we could finish this conversation inside? Heero needs medical attention." Heero, though he appreciated it on the inside, shot Trowa a quick glare for pointing out his weakness to which Trowa responded by mouthing a 'you're welcome' back to him.

"Of course, follow me." Mr. Winner led them to a sitting room and told a nearby assistant to find a doctor. The three pilots set down the evidence from the campsite before sitting on a large couch across from Mr. Winner's chair. "Now then, what happened? Have you got any leads so far?"

"We found the campsite they had occupied but they had already abandoned it." As Heero spoke a doctor arrived at his side and began treating his shoulder wound. Wufei spoke from there.

"We followed them and ended up finding them not too far away. We engaged in a gun fight and we about to reclaim Quatre and Duo when Heero was shot." Heero mumbled under his breath but Wufei ignored him. "Before we could do anything else, the enemy had both at gunpoint."

"You just let them leave?"

"We really didn't have a choice. If we had fired on them someone could've gotten killed." Mr. Winner leaned down and rubbed his temples just as the doctor finished patching up Heero who then spoke again.

"Look, we all need rest and we need to run some tests and get more of our equipment. Why don't we all just try and get some rest and start fresh back here tomorrow?"

After checking his watch again, Mr. Winner nodded. "I'll have one of my driver's take you all home." The three pilots stood and bowed their heads.

"Thank you sir."

End

What did you think? I hope that you readers out there like it. I'm hoping to get chapter 3 up ASAP.

Please review! Thanks for reading!

PS - I'm sorry about the stupid underlined scene dividers. For some reason I couldn't get that nifty line thing to work again but I still didn't want people to get confused with nothing there to transition. Again, sorry, I really did not want to do it but it really came down to either trying to get the line thing work and then post it, which could've taken god knows how long, or suck it up and divide the scenes another way. But I hope the chapter was good! Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you so much to all that reviewed! Or even if you are just reading and don't review. I was looking at my stats today and it said that this story has over 400 hits so I got really excited. I appreciate all of the support!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gundam Wing boys sadly.

Author Note: Okay, so I've already done a few what I label "fight scenes" in the story but there are more coming up. Personally, I don't think I write them very well so I apologize for any confusion they might cause.

And just to remind you, 'words'thoughts and "words"speech.

(---) change in perspective while remaining in the same environment.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 ----- MADE SLIGHT ADJUSTMENTS TO CHAPTER---ADDED TO A PARAGRAPH AND ADDED A NEW PARAGRAPH. Sorry, I forgot a few things that needed to be in this chapter. Sorry if this causes inconvenience, but it's pretty important. I did mark the new paragraph and the other modifications are in the following paragraph, so if you just want to read that, go for it.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Still locked away, Duo and Quatre were trying to make the best of the hours by reminiscing on old times.

"Oh, I've got it. Remember that time when I completely redecorated Heero's room with pretty pink princess stuff?" Quatre chuckled and nodded so Duo continued.

"Oh man, he cam home and walked in there." Duo couldn't help but laugh at the memory. "The look on his face!" Quatre joined Duo in laughing and clutched his side.

"He just about killed you that night. Literally."

"Yeah it took me forever to get those damn stickers off of his wall but it was so worth it. I would pay to see his face again…" Their laughter gradually died down as Duo's last words reminded the two where they had been and how they had gotten there.

"I hope Heero's okay…" Quatre's dull voice broke the silence.

"Don't worry, Heero's a tough kid. He can take a shot or two. He'll be fine, don't you worry." Duo's voice steadily dropped as he spoke and he couldn't hide his own worry for his comrades. Quatre looked over to him and frowned before trying to cheer him up.

"Oh Duo…I know it's hard but you're right. Heero is going to be fine and I'll bet we see him soon." Quatre hugged Duo tightly and felt as he embraced him as well. With a small smile, Quatre pulled away from him.

"Now then, I'm gonna have a real look around this place." Duo smiled back and nodded to Quatre as the blonde lifted himself from the floor and began looking around. With his thoughts still lingering at the gunfight and its' happenings, Duo was suddenly reminded of a question he had wanted to ask Quatre.

"Hey Quatre?" The blonde looked away from the wall he was tapping on and back to Duo.

"What is it Duo?"

"Well, I was just thinking back to the fight and I know that you have your empathy and that that's how you knew that Heero was the one that got shot and everything but I just can't help but notice how it effected you." Quatre sadly nodded to Duo and the braided boy continued, "Well, I don't mean to pry or anything and just tell me if I am, but I guess I'm wondering how you could deal with that in battles with our Gundams and all the people there."

Quatre leaned against the wall as he responded, "Well, during the war none of this would've phased me really because it was happening all the time all around us but now to feel such intense emotion…it's just staggering. I have to be able to build myself up before I can just charge into battle. I can't handle it all at once especially from Heero who barely shows any emotion in the first place, you know?"

Duo nodded in agreement and leaned his head against the wall as he put all the pieces together in his mind. Following every move Quatre made, Duo sighed and stared at the blonde from his spot on the floor. Rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes, the braided boy thought to himself.

'Things are so screwed up right now…so much for Heero's plan. We've got to get out of here.' Duo started down at his watch, 'Damn…it's already 5:20 in the morning. Time really does fly when you're talking to someone you…' Even Duo's thoughts stopped as he stared at the watch and saw how it went in and out of signal. Quickly the gears in Duo's head began moving again and he gasped as an idea struck him. Quatre turned around hurriedly.

"What's wrong?" He watched as Duo moved to different spots in the room with his eyes constantly on the watch. When he finally stopped and sat back down on the floor, Quatre watched as he removed the watch and began to carefully take it apart. Quatre returned to Duo's side and got a closer look. "What are you doing?"

"The watch doubles as a communicator remember?" Duo whispered to Quatre as he worked. "If I can somehow increase the range of the frequency we might be able to get a stable signal that Heero can pick up and then get us the hell out of here!"

Quatre couldn't help but smile at Duo's moment of genius as he continued staring at his ever moving hands as they reworked the wires of the watch.

"Just another tweak here…" Both Duo and Quatre jumped as they heard someone begin to unlock the series of locks that were keeping the boys locked in the room. Quatre racked his brain for ideas before looking to Duo again.

"How much time do you need to finish?"

"Only about 45 seconds or so…why?"

"I'll distract them, you keep working." Duo looked up shocked as Quatre began running toward the opening door.

"But…Quatre…you don't…" Giving up, Duo worked especially fast. On the other side of the door, Kale watched as the guard unlocked the door with a shaky hand. Kale pulled the door open just as Quatre got there.

"What the…" Without stopping, Quatre rammed his body into Kale's catching the man off-guard and knocking him onto his back. As soon as Kale was out of his way, Quatre stepped out of the doorway and slammed the door closed again.

Inside the cell, Duo finished and prayed for hope. 'Heero, your laptop, your watch, something had better be on and ready to get this right now.' He clicked the watch together again and checked for signal. Once everything looked functional, Duo pressed the button and waited.

On the outside, Quatre was starting to rethink his plan as he gaped at a minimum of fifteen approaching men as well as the recovering Kale. Taking a quick look around, Quatre could again faintly smell sewage as the stench traveled through the enormous and very plain warehouse. Quatre saw that he was cornered between the metal staircase to his right and the wall to his left. Trying to see more, Quatre didn't notice as Kale yelled at two of the other men and soon Quatre was harshly pulled away from the door by the two men and then slammed face first into the wall and held in his place. Kale appeared again and cruelly ordered the men to twist Quatre's arms behind his back causing the pilot to cry out in pain. Kale then took a moment to press Quatre's face harder against the concrete wall before turning back towards the cell door.

Throwing it open, Kale stormed over to Duo who immediately looked up at him in fear. Kale snarled and snatched the watch from Duo's hands before he could hide it and grabbed Duo by his arm as well. Dragging the struggling pilot with him, Kale exited the cell just as Axel arrived to find out what was going on.

"And what do we have here?" Axel took in the scene and chuckled. Quatre ignored him and focused on his bigger concern.

"Duo!" The braided boy looked up at hearing his name but could only again look down and sigh in defeat. Kale smirked and lifted Duo to his feet. As everyone focused on the details of the situation, Duo stealthily took a look around to get a better feel of where they were. The warehouse was a plain gray color and lacked any real decoration at all. If Duo focused enough, he could just barely see sleeping bags set up all over the floor. Just as Quatre had seen, Duo watched as a big group of people approached but unlike Quatre, Duo had enough time to observe that not one face in the crowd had any detection of anger; in fact, the crowd seemed very confused by what was happening at the prisoners' cell door.

'Why would there be sleeping bags set up everywhere and why don't all these people hate and attack us like Axel and Kale do? What exactly is going on here?'

"I found 02 with this," Kale handed Axel the watch and continued. "Blondie here was trying to distract me while he worked on it. That's probably how he contacted the others before."

Axel nodded before handing the watch off to someone else. "Take this to our scientists, they can figure it out and tell me later. In the meantime put 02 back in the room; I want 04 with me."

Quatre finally got some relief as he was pulled away from the wall but he still kept his eye to Duo with a hint of suspicion. Quickly, Duo winked at Quatre before returning to his sullen face. Quatre looked at the boy confused but was forced away and up the metal staircase.

Hoping that Quatre got his signal correctly, Duo stared after the pilot until Kale's massive body blocked his view.

"Don't worry about him 02. In fact, you're about to have much bigger problems." Duo was forced to step back into the cell as Kale advanced.

(back at the mansion)

Since they had gotten back to the mansion, Heero had been glued to his laptop checking constantly for any sign of his friends. Hours passed and there was still nothing. Heero yawned and heard as Wufei made some tea in the kitchen. The Chinese boy walked into the living room and sat down next a very sleepy Heero.

"Yuy, you've been up for hours staring at nothing. If you don't sleep now then you might just fall asleep later when it really counts. You already have to be careful because of your injury and we all need to be in tip-top shape for what might come; the computer can wait."

"Well, what're you doing up then?"

"I've already slept as much as I need. Now I'm going to get a head start on testing that equipment we brought back. By the time you and Barton get up, we should be able to get going." Heero nodded sleepily at him and abandoned his post at his laptop not even stopping to turn it off first. Wufei walked with him slowly while sipping his tea until they parted ways to go down separate hallways.

Just as the two pilots were reaching their destinations, unknown to them, Heero's laptop faintly beeped for a few moments before falling silent again.

(back at the warehouse)

(NEW PARAGRAPH) A man in his mid to late thirties swiftly walked down the intricate hallways of the west wing of the warehouse until he finally found the right room. Opening the door slowly, the man walked into the room and looked on towards a small group of men gathered around something. Not caring what they were doing, the man just placed a watch down on the counter. Hearing the noise, one of the men from the group walked over while brushing off his lab coat.

"They took it from the captives." The scientist raised his eyebrows confused and looked to the man who merely shrugged in response. "I dunno, just figure it out." The man turned and left. The scientist carefully picked the watch up and looked it over slowly before placing it back on the counter and moving back toward the group of men he had been standing with earlier.

(---)

At the top of the staircase Quatre followed Axel as he turned right into a hallway then left into a reasonably large room. The blonde had to take a moment to take in what he was seeing as he entered what seemed to be Axel's office. Unlike the very bland rooms of the warehouse, this room was decorated with beautiful and expensive paintings in addition to bookcases full of books, wine red painted walls and a very detailed carpet to cover the hard floors underneath. Upon entering Axel instantly sat himself in the big cushioned chair behind his elaborate dark wooden desk where he began to put away and organize the papers that were strewn everywhere. Quatre looked around and felt that he had stepped into an alternate dimension compared to where he had just come from. Before Axel was done cleaning off his desk, Quatre snuck a glance at some of the papers the man was trying to hide from him. The only piece that Quatre was able to decipher before Axel tossed them away were several envelopes with the word 'FORWARDED ADDRESS' printed on them in red ink followed by what Quatre assumed to be the address of this warehouse. Axel, once done putting away his papers, beckoned Quatre to sit in the also very cushioned chair in front of him.

"Please sit down 04; I'll get straight to the point." Quatre ignored the fact that Axel was calling him by his old label and sat down with a confused look on his face. He finally stopped looking around at the sophisticated office and focused on Axel who was staring into his eyes.

"Do you even know why this is happening to you and your dear friend Duo?" Quatre flinched at hearing his comrade's name and suddenly sensed a great fear. 'Oh no, Duo is down there with Kale.'

"What're you doing to Duo?" Quatre's voice, while demanding, was very shaky as he spoke. When Axel only smiled in response, Quatre rose from his chair, "What are you doing to him!" Axel shook his head at Quatre's rash actions.

"Man, your father was right, you do have a temper," Axel paused as Quatre stared at him angrily then changed the subject quickly. "Quatre, Duo is a big boy he can take care of himself now please, sit back down."

Quatre was about to yell again but only cried out as sharp pains struck his chest. Axel looked on as the blonde clutched his chest in agony and slowly sank to the floor. Curling into a ball, Quatre took in deep breaths of air as the pain died down to a manageable level.

Axel chuckled to himself and rose from his chair. Leisurely, he walked to where Quatre was writhing on the floor and knelt down. Looking Quatre dead in the eyes, he spoke.

"You have no idea what your father did, do you?" Quatre glared up at the man as if signaling him to continue. "You see Quatre, your father ruined all of our lives by taking away what we all loved most so now what else can I do but return the favor?"

Axel smiled at the look of confusion and fear on Quatre's face then spoke again.

"Oh, but you might wants to go and stop Kale before he kills your friend." With that, Axel moved back towards his desk and watched as Quatre ran from the room.

"Yes, you can go, for now. We'll have plenty of time to talk later."

(---)

Quatre ran blindly back to the metal staircase with only one thing on his mind. Rushing down the stairs three at a time, Quatre reached for the cell door handle and threw the door open.

"Duo!"

Kale looked up from his prey momentarily as Quatre burst though the door. The blonde looked into the room and found Kale holding Duo by his shirt collar and Duo helplessly trying to hold onto the man's wrists.

"Put him down Kale." The extremely muscular man, without taking his eyes from Quatre, dropped Duo to the floor. Both heard as Duo grunted in pain before Kale responded.

"And why should I?"

Quatre took a deep breath in before running towards Kale and kicking him out of the way. Unfortunately for the blonde, Kale didn't go too far and was able to quickly counter his kick with a thrashing of his own that sent Quatre to the ground. Just as Kale was about to attack again, the guard from outside was in the doorway.

"It's time to stop. Axel's orders Kale." The man snarled and glared at Quatre who only smirked back at him. Turning towards the door dramatically, Kale began to leave but not before turning around to face both of the pilots.

"I'll be back, soon enough."

As the door slammed closed and was locked yet again, Quatre sighed to himself in relief. Getting back to business, Quatre peeled himself from his spot on the ground and hurried to Duo's side. Once he got a chance to see Duo up close, Quatre winced at seeing the boy's wounds. They didn't seem to be too serious but his bleeding nose and split lip were enough to upset Quatre.

"Duo, are you okay? Is anything broken?" Quatre gently helped Duo lean his back against the wall and the braided boy smiled at the blonde.

"I'll be fine. Nothing broken, he just beat the shit out of me is all. I was holding my own there for a second but damn, for a big guy, he is fast." As he tried to readjust his position, Duo grimaced in pain and put an arm to his rib cage. "Okay, I might have a fractured and/or cracked rib but other than that…" Duo couldn't hide the pain in his voice and Quatre sighed.

"What are we gonna do now? We're locked up again, you're injured and they've got the watch. Now we can't reach the others…" Quatre leaned against the wall next to Duo and closed his eyes in defeat and exhaustion. Duo smirked to himself.

"Yeah…too bad neither of us thought to rig the watch's signal to go off again any time someone tried to get a closer look at it." At this, Quatre's eyes popped open again and he stared wide-eyed at Duo who only smirked back at him.

"Please tell me you got it done before Kale took it from you." At seeing Duo's weak nod, Quatre wrapped his arms around the boy as gently as possible. Duo lived in the moment until Quatre pulled away again. "Genius, you are a genius!"

"Yep, now all we really have to do is stay alive long enough to be rescued." Quatre's thoughts wandered as Duo's last sentence stuck in his mind, 'What would I do if something happened to him?'

Duo looked over at Quatre's quizzical face and couldn't help but chuckle some. After a few moments, Duo waved his hand in front of Quatre's face and spoke, "Hey buddy, you still in there?"

Quatre shook his head to stop his daydreaming and looked over at Duo. "Sorry, just thinking." Duo smiled at the blonde before readjusting his position and speaking again.

"So, tell me what happened with Axel."

End

Well? How was it? I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW. Even anonymous reviews are appreciated. Tell me what I could do better with or tell me what you love or hate. Anything. I love getting feedback. AND more reviews means more inspiration which induces more writing spells and more chapters!

Again, sorry about the changes I made. hopefully, they've helped in solving the mystery of the plot in your brain, but if not it will all be revealed in time. Don't worry.

I hope to have the next chapter posted soon. We're getting relatively close to the ending so please continue reading! Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

Well, here is the fourth chapter of Kidnapped. It's not quite as long as the others but it is full of a lot of information! I'm kind of sad that I don't have more reviews for this story but it's gotten almost 800 hits now so that kind of makes up for it. Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

And just to remind you, 'words'thoughts and "words"speech.

(---)  change in perspective while remaining in the same environment (or in this chapter, a little time has passed between the paragraphs)

IMPORTANT Author Note: If you didn't see this before now, I made a few adjustments in the last chapter (3) which are important! Go back and read them please.

Chapter 4

The hours had seemed to fly by as Heero sleepily trudged through the mansion after getting a mere five hours of sleep. Heading straight for the kitchen, Heero sighed and missed the smell of breakfast that Quatre was always cooking when he woke up. Sitting at the kitchen table was Trowa with a cup of coffee and the morning paper. He glanced toward the fridge as Heero opened it to get some cream for his own cup of coffee.

"Morning."

"Hn."

Trowa smiled a little to himself at Heero's trademark reply before folding up the newspaper and placing it on the table.

"Wufei told me that you were up until five." At Heero's nod, he continued, "We were going to let you sleep a little longer."

Heero shrugged, "I don't think I could sleep any longer if I tried; too much on my mind." Heero stopped stirring his coffee and took a moment to think about his friends and their situation.

"You're really worried about them, aren't you?"

Heero, brought back to reality by Trowa speaking, nodded and sipped at his coffee before Trowa spoke again.

"I am too but if you think about it this could actually be an opportunity for them both." Heero hadn't really thought about it in that way and even though things probably weren't good for his two friends, Trowa was right.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe they'll finally get it all out, I mean, it's not like all of us don't already know that they're in love. Even Wufei knows and he could see it just from their behavior towards each other." Heero paused for a moment thinking about how the two were so shy around each other. "Speaking of Wufei, how is he doing with the analysis?"

Trowa took a quick glance at the time before answering, "He should be done about now actually."

At that, both boys rose from their seats, grabbed their coffee mugs plus one for Wufei and headed towards the lab.

"The halls are too quiet." Trowa spoke softly as they walked. Heero nodded in agreement just as they reached the lab doors. They proceeded to their destination only to find a very confused Wufei. At seeing them enter, Wufei immediately handed them the piece of paper he was holding.

"We have quite a mystery on our hands." Trowa handed Wufei his coffee and the Chinese boy thanked him as he waited for them to finish reading.

As Heero and Trowa read over the paper, they're eyes grew wide. Heero glared and spoke.

"I need to see this for myself."

(---)

After an hour of checking the evidence, forming a plan and getting ready to leave, Heero carefully packed up the essentials, including his laptop, and put it in the back of his jeep with Trowa and Wufei's stuff. They all climbed into the car and prepared for the twenty minute trip to their destination.

(back at the warehouse)

"Today is the day Kale. I am going to break that boy so badly that he will want to kill himself just as much as I want to do it for him." Axel grinned maliciously at the thought of his plans and turned as Kale spoke.

"Should I go get him?"

"No, we'll let them sit for a while longer. For now, I'm sure you have some work to do."

Kale bowed his head to Axel before exiting his office.

"Oh I've got work to do alright. Payback."

(back to the pilots)

At exactly noon Heero, Trowa and Wufei were gathering their things from the back of Heero's jeep. Slowly they made their way up to the building until they were right in front of the giant doors. Heero looked to the others and took in a deep breath.

"Ready?" At seeing Trowa and Wufei both nod, Heero pushed open the doors.

"Ah, boys. We've been expecting you. Please follow me."

Heero's glare deepened and he kept a sharp eye out as the three followed the man up a flight of stairs and into an office where three chairs awaited them. They suspiciously looked on at the man sitting at the desk before them as they themselves sat down. The men looked up at them and smiled.

"You're earlier then I was expecting. I trust that can only mean that you have a lead on where my son is?" Heero purposely waited for the butler that had escorted them there to leave, closing the doors behind him, before responding to Mr. Winner.

"Actually, after analyzing all of the evidence from the campsite, it all points to one place."

"This is fantastic. We can start working out a plan immediately." Mr. Winner's face grew confused as he started at the pilots' quite blank expressions. Wufei sighed and spoke.

"Well, not quite." Mr. Winner was about to ask why when Wufei continued, "You see, all the evidence was linked by one common source and…" Wufei paused and looked to the others before continuing.

"That source was your Mr. Winner." The man rose from his seat outraged at the accusation.

"What are you talking about!" Heero stood and simultaneously drew his gun on Mr. Winner, who stared at the weapon shocked. "Put that thing down before I call security."

"You understand Mr. Winner, it's simply precaution. There's no need to call anyone. Now please, just sit down and listen." Slowly, Mr. Winner sat down again and watched as Heero put away his weapon and sat down as well. With a deep breath, Mr. Winner calmly tried again.

"Why would I be the source for my own son's kidnapping?" Trowa answered for the group.

"To be honest, we have no idea how or why any of this is linked to you, which is why we knew we needed to consult with you as soon as we all saw the evidence for ourselves."

"And what exactly did you find?" At this question, Wufei took over.

"From the campsite, we weren't able to get much but we did get a tent and some blankets with fingerprints and other samples of DNA as well as some photos of their footprints. While the DNA was helpful in getting a closer look at our suspects, we already knew their names and what they looked like so I searched fro something more." Mr. Winner listened intently as Wufei spoke. Trowa pulled a folder from his bag and gave Mr. Winner a few basic pictures of the evidence.

"Taking the DNA search away, I decided to just look over the evidence physically and what I found was quite a shocker." Trowa then handed Mr. Winner more detailed photos of the tent and blankets.

"If you look closely at the photos, in the bottom right-hand corner of both the tents and the blankets you'll se some writing." Mr. Winner held the photos up to look and his eyes grew wide at what he saw.

"Property of Winner Corp."

"Precisely. Even the boots that left behind very detailed footprints were property of your organization."

"Only an employee of my company has access to any of this equipment."

"Or a former employee," Trowa interrupted. "We did a background check on the two men and found that both worked for you at around the same time period."

Mr. Winner turned in his chair and thought silently to himself before suddenly turning back to the boys.

"What were their names?" Trowa again pulled papers from his bag. He handed the two profiles of the men to Mr. Winner.

"Kale and Axel."

Glancing over the two papers he'd been handed, Mr. Winner's expression grew grim.

(back at the warehouse)

Kale approached the cell door and spoke with the guard.

"Axel's orders. I'm going in. Guard the door and don't ask questions." Scared and confused, the man moved of Kale's way so he could begin with the locks on the door.

Inside, the two captives were just waking from a very uncomfortable sleep. Quatre sat up first and stretched his aching muscles. He looked over at Duo as he continued to sleep and smiled at his braided friend. 'If it means that I get to stare at him for a little longer, I guess I'll let him sleep.' Unfortunately, Quatre's wish was crushed as the harsh sound of the locks being undone was heard. Quatre quickly crawled to Duo's side as he tried to wake the boy.

"Duo, come on you've got to wake up someone's coming." Duo only rolled further away from Quatre and asked for five more minutes just as the door flew open and in came Kale. Quatre looked up at the man and rose as Kale growled, shutting the door behind him, and started towards him.

Completely disregarding Duo, Kale headed straight for the blonde. Before Quatre could even make a move, Kale had forced him into a corner. The huge man began the beating with a hard punch to Quatre's stomach. The boy doubled over in pain but not for long as Kale forced him to an upright position and swung one at his jaw. Quatre flew back into the wall and tried to regain his balance and his breath. Another punch to his stomach left Quatre coughing and gasping for air.

Still on the floor, Duo opened his eyes groggily and yawned. Growing puzzled at hearing Quatre coughing, Duo began to sit up.

"Hey Quatre, are you…" Duo turned around and saw Kale just as the man approached him and swung his foot into the braided boy's face.

"Duo!" Quatre could only watch as Duo flew back and landed on the ground unconscious from Kale's kick. Kale was back at Quatre's side and he punched the boy in the jaw again sending him to the ground as well. After delivering a few kicks to his stomach, Kale grabbed Quatre by his neck and lifted him so that his feet were at least two feet from the ground. Quatre gasped for air and desperately tried to pry Kale's hands from his neck.

Just as Kale was about to speak, Duo appeared between the two and, using the wall as support, kicked Kale away. The man let go of Quatre and flew across the cell. Quatre fell to the floor again and clutched his neck as he took in deep breaths of air.

"Are you okay?" Duo kneeled by Quatre and looked at him concerned. Before he could answer, both boys saw Kale get back to his feet. Duo stood in defense just as Kale began to charge.

Suddenly the door to the cell flew open and Axel stepped into the scene. Immediately, Kale stopped in his tracks and Axel glared at him.

"What the hell is going on here? What do you think you are doing? Get out right now!"

At first Kale just glared back at Axel in defiance. Both boys thought that something was about to go down but suddenly Kale just grunted and stormed out of the cell. Immediately, Axel turned his glare to the pilots.

"Don't think for a second that my stopping that has saved you in the least."

Axel turned on his heel and marched fuming of the door and slammed it closed so hard that it bounced from the door frame and stayed opened just enough so the pilots inside the cell could see the scene.

Duo knelt back down next to a mostly recovered Quatre. The blonde continued to take in deep breaths and stared at Duo with wide eyes.

"What's wrong? What is it?" Duo carefully tried to pull Quatre's hand away from his very wrinkled and filthy pink shirt. Quatre blinked a few times before responding.

"Just…such raw emotion…he's so angry…"Suddenly a very shaky Quatre jumped forward into Duo's arms and clung to him, "I'm sorry…I just…"

"Shh, no need to explain yourself Quatre, not ever." Duo held Quatre close to him and rubbed his back soothingly. After a moment, Quatre hesitantly and reluctantly pulled out of the hug with a renewed strength. He nodded to Duo signaling that he would be alright and spoke.

"Duo, you are too kind to me, thank you." Duo nodded but his thoughts wandered. Both boys heard yelling outside of the door and Quatre became curious as to what was happening. Quatre slowly moved towards the door to get a better view of the scene outside. Sighing to himself, Duo tenderly felt the warmth on his chest where Quatre had just been and closed his eyes, 'I need to feel this warmth more often…'

Quatre, looking through the small crack in the doorway, was surprised to see Axel and Kale in a very heated argument. 'Man, Kale must've really pissed Axel off. I wonder how this will affect Duo and I.' Seeing Kale storm off and Axel heading towards him, Quatre quickly moved back to where he had been sitting next to Duo and watched as Axel came back into the cell. Duo looked up at him as the man took a breath to recompose himself before turning to the boys.

End

(---)

What will happen next? Maybe some of you are piecing it all together, or maybe you're on the edge of your seats, or quite frankly, maybe you don't care. But I swear it'll be exciting! If anything in this chapter didn't make sense, please tell me. I don't mind explaining anything to anyone.

PLEASE REVIEW!

Just to let you all know I have the rest of the story outlined out so now it's just the matter of typing it all up. The ending is almost here!

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I merely own a laptop with Word on it so that I may type this story for the few loyal fans that I have who I appreciate so very much.

Sorry for the wait everyone. I have been so busy with college and life but a break at home gave me the chance to finish this chapter finally and even though it's 3:28 in the morning and I should be asleep, I am typing this story instead. Thank you for waiting and hopefully reviewing! Thank you again to everyone that has already reviewed, I greatly enjoy and appreciate any feedback offered.

So I must admit that even I think that plot is kind of odd right now and I apologize. Some days I really love it, and others I wonder if I should just change the whole story around. In the end, obviously, I have decided to stick with it because I am hoping that the ending I have planned, which I absolutely love, is good enough to redeem any part of the plot that may seem off here. But enough of my ranting. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Still staring at the two papers that Trowa had handed to him, Mr. Winner sighed deeply and finally looked to the three pilots again.

"Mr. Winner," the man turned to face Heero as he spoke. "Any other time, we would love to give you a minute to compose yourself but under these circumstances, we need information fast." Mr. Winner immediately nodded.

"I'm sorry boys, I am fine and ready to tell you all that I can; this is just not a story that I enjoy telling." Mr. Winner took another deep breath before he began.

(back at the warehouse)

Axel stood over both of the boys before him as he prepared himself for a long talk. The light above the three in the cell flickered as the tension grew.

"I am in no way apologizing for Kale but that should never have happened." Duo scoffed at Axel's less than sincere comment and didn't wait for the man to continue.

"Dude, let's cut the bullshit out of this and get on to the part about why you're after Quatre's dad, sound good?" Axel immediately glared at Duo and resisted the urge to cause him pain.

"Alright then…" With an annoyed look, Axel agreed as the boys both looked to him listening intently. Axel looked over at Quatre as he spoke, "You might be surprised to find that your father, Kale and I go way back Quatre. We've been friends since before your father inherited his estate and when your dad finally became head of the family business oh so long ago, he offered Kale and I some pretty decent jobs that we, of course, accepted." Axel was interrupted by an obnoxious Duo.

"What were you, janitors?"

Ignoring his comment, Axel carried on, "Eventually, we became the heads of our sector of the company and we managed an entire team of people. Things were going great. Then one day, your father pulls us into his office and tells us that he must "regrettably let us go," Axel glanced over at Duo, "Talk about bullshit."

Duo rolled his eyes at the man and Quatre took a moment to take it in. He was trying to understand it all but he knew that something had to be missing from the story. The blonde kept switching his hand to clutch either his sore neck or his chest as Axel and Duo spoke.

"So…you're pissed because Quatre's father fired you?" Duo's aggravated and perplexed look basically summed up all of his feelings on the situation. Axel breathed a frustrated sigh and turned to Duo to respond.

"He fired all of us! He fired every single person in the department, every single person that you've seen here and so many more." Axel looked back to Quatre and saw the look on bewilderment on his face. Even more infuriated, Axel continued to yell and pointed a finger at Quatre, "_Your_ father destroyed all of our lives! And after we lost our jobs, we were in the middle of a war so none of us could get another one. We lost our homes, our families…well, how would you feel?" Axel took a deep breath and calmed down before he spoke again in a more serious tone.

"But I guess that what your father did will never quite amount to what you did to us all Quatre."

(back at the mansion)

"So…they're pissed because you fired them?" As Heero spoke, he realized just how much Duo had rubbed off on him lately. Mr. Winner nodded to them and continued telling the story.

"I had to let the whole department go actually; it just wasn't performing as well as expected so our investors pulled the plug. I fought my hardest for them, I mean they were my good friends at one time, but in the end my hands were tied." Mr. Winner paused for a moment and shook his head. Trowa immediately noticed and questioned the man.

"What is it?"

"Well…" Mr. Winner rubbed his chin and leaned back in his chair, "I just don't see how they could be angry enough to do this to me. After all, I've sent them support checks month after month." This statement instantly curved the pilots' interest.

"Support checks?"

"What do you mean?"

"I felt horrible that they were fired in the first place and that none of them could get jobs during the war so every month since the former employees have moved into the shelter I provided for them, I've been sending them checks for them to survive off of."

Heero looked over the Wufei and Trowa who looked back at him puzzled but unwavering.

(back at the warehouse)

"Well Quatre," Duo sighed and shook his head towards the blonde before continuing, "These guys are stupider than we ever could've expected!" Quatre raised an eyebrow at Duo as he only smirked back at him. Quatre rolled his eyes at his friend but an infuriated Axel wasn't as kind. Quatre turned back to face Axel just as the man reared his arm back, eyes dead-set on Duo. The braided boy only got a glance before Axel back-handed him so hard that the he toppled over onto the cold ground. Quatre's hand immediately flew to his chest as he could only watch as Axel then grabbed Duo by his shirt and pulled him to a sitting position again.

Surprisingly, the man just backed away and stared at both boys. He watched and waited as both Duo and Quatre recomposed themselves. Quatre looked to Duo for the moment and tried to see that his friend was alright but he wasn't surprised to see Duo still smirking even as he rubbed his throbbing cheek. Quatre and Duo both looked to Axel and simply watched as his hatred for them increased through his expression. The silence was broken by Axel finally speaking again.

"You both think that you're so high and mighty but look at where you are now; two Gundam pilots kidnapped by the lowest of the low. We're not even common criminals and yet we were able to overtake you and your friends too."

"Yeah? Well just imagine if you hadn't cheated you jackass." Axel and Quatre both looked to Duo as he egged the man on but Axel kept his cool under the pressure, 'Don't worry over that idiot…soon enough your real prey will be done for and that little brat will have nowhere else to go but to follow him down.' Axel smiled to himself at the thought of his plan and decided that is was time to begin. Quatre silently wished that Duo would stop making his comments but was also glad to have him there with him; though Quatre's mind was more focused on what Axel meant when he said that he had done more damage than his father ever could have.

"Quatre." The blonde blinked as his name was spoken and watched as Axel turned and kneeled down next to him. "There is one fateful day of the war that I will never forget and that is the day that I watched my kinsmen die by your hands." Quatre's head tilted slightly as he listened to the man waiting for an explanation.

"You should recall a certain system…ZERO I believe?" Quatre's eyes grew wide at this notion and he couldn't stop his mind from traveling back to those memories that he had tried so hard to forget until this point. Duo grew angrier and had to hold himself back as a vast grin formed on Axel's face as he watched Quatre squirm.

"During the war, you were overtaken by the ZERO system in a Gundam and managed to destroy the one good thing that your father had set up for us. He felt guilty, as he should, for firing all of us so he set up a shelter for us to live in until we were better off. Those of us that still had families moved in and tried to make the best. Your father sent us one check to help and then nothing until we were basically animals living off of the land. And then you came along. I sat and watched your Gundam destroy our home and all of the innocent people that were still inside." Axel paused to watch Quatre for a moment. Quatre couldn't help but gasp a little as he heard this though he tried not to show too much emotion as Axel continued.

"Those of us that were left moved here, the very factory that we all used to work in. And, well, here we are." Quatre stared at the floor as thoughts raced through his mind. He remained silent as Axel preyed upon him.

"This is bullshit."

Axel sighed as Duo, once more, interrupted his moment. The man stood tall once again and glared at the two boys.

"You know, just thinking about what you did to all of those people makes me horribly sad Quatre. But even worse is what you're doing to Duo right now."

Almost immediately, Duo was on his feet and in Axel's face ready to throw the first punch. He only stopped when he faintly heard Quatre's voice.

"Duo…don't; just let it be." Quatre didn't look up at them as he remained on the floor, a broken expression on his face. Duo glared at Axel before backing away slowly and moving to Quatre's side. Axel's grin grew wider as he watched the two for a moment before turning to the door and leaving the cell. As he was closing the door, Axel glanced once more at Quatre. The door was closed and locked when Axel heard as Kale walked up behind him. The man turned to face his associate and spoke.

"The plan is working perfectly."

(mansion)

"Mr. Winner, we're going to need the address to that shelter." Without a moment to lose, Heero retrieved his laptop from the bag next to him.

"Why? You think that might be where they're holding Quatre?"

"It's a good possibility." Trowa and Wufei watched as Heero booted up his laptop and waited for it to come on. Mr. Winner began looking through his files to find the address as Heero's laptop was finally completely booted. Heero clicked away and immediately opened up his tracking system software. Just as he was about to ask for the address, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. Heero peered down at his laptop before cursing under his breath.

"What is it?" Wufei looked over Heero's shoulder as the stoic pilot grew more frustrated. The Chinese boy glanced to Trowa who merely shrugged and looked over Heero's shoulder as well. Everyone jumped when Heero suddenly slammed his fist down lightly onto his laptop.

"My tracking system picked up a signal last night. It was more than likely Duo and Quatre."

"Can you retrieve it?" Mr. Winner anxiously awaited Heero's answer but his expression fell when Heero only grew more irritated.

"I can't even pull up what time it happened though it had to have been after I left it this morning…Damn it…" Heero closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair while wondering what they could do now. Trowa put a hand on Heero's back and rubbed it a little before speaking.

"Why don't we look up the address to the shelter? If anything, that's a start." Heero sighed before looking to Trowa with a nod of agreement and thanks.

(in a laboratory)

A man in a lab coat suddenly turned back to the small item on the counter. Intrigued by it and bored with his other work, the man slowly began to examine it. Soon after the man had begun, another man walked up to him questioning his actions.

"It looks like an ordinary watch…why do we need to look at it?" The second man shrugged and responded.

"Well, have a crack at it anyway I guess." After a few moments of tinkering, the first man had easily pried open the watch. Unknown to the scientist, Duo's watch picked up the signal and began sending wavelengths of his distress call as he poked and prodded the gears of the watch.

(mansion)

"There it is." Mr. Winner confirmed the location of the shelter he had built for his former employees on Heero's computer and sat back down at his desk.

"Alright, we'll head that wa…" Wufei was immediately interrupted as Heero's laptop started beeping out of control. Everyone stopped as Heero clicked and typed on the keyboard. They held their breath until Heero finally spoke.

"It's the same signal as before," Heero spoke more excitedly than the others had ever heard him speak before. After a few more clicks, Heero spoke again. "It has to be from Duo and Quatre."

"How can you tell?" Mr. Winner was ready to burst out of his chair at this news.

"The signal is a lot more erratic than it normally is. Duo must've tinkered with it somehow."

"Maxwell is good with that kind of stuff." Wufei smiled to himself

"So where is it coming from?" Trowa watched the screen closely as Heero continued. Heero concentrated on the screen to find the information but sighed once again.

"There's no address; I can't tell what it is but I know it is not the shelter."

"Maybe Mr. Winner should have a look." Trowa looked to the man behind his desk and saw as he immediately jumped from his seat to look at the computer. Mr. Winner kneeled down and squinted as he stared at the screen.

"I recognize the area but I can't quite pinpoint why….can you zoom out a bit?" Heero nodded and did so while restlessly waiting for answers. Heero's computer continued to beep alerting them still to the strong signal and making time seem even slower than it already felt. Taking in a breath, Mr. Winner spoke.

"I know the place!" All three pilots looked to the older man as he spoke eagerly. "It's the old warehouse that all of the former employees worked at; I thought the place was locked up but they must've gotten in somehow. It's not far from here actually." Heero took a moment to absorb this information before pieces of a plan began to form in his mind.

"Mr. Winner," Heero addressed the man while simultaneously packing everything up along with Wufei and Trowa. "Get some people to that shelter ASAP. Check it out just in case. We're going now to the warehouse." Mr. Winner looked up as Heero stood and nodded to him. The older man stood as well and outstretched his hand to the pilot. Heero looked down briefly at it before firmly shaking the man's hand.

"Keep in touch."

The three nodded before hastily exiting the office and leaving Mr. Winner back with his thoughts.

(warehouse)

Duo glared hard at the door long after it had been shut, once again trapping the two pilots inside. After a good few minutes of glaring, Duo finally turned to his friend and immediately his insides melted. Quatre hadn't moved an inch from the spot where he was sitting but the devastated look on the blonde's face was enough to make Duo upset. The braided boy was kneeled at Quatre's side at once ready to cheer him up.

"Quatre, what's wrong?" Duo wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders and noticed how Quatre still had a firm grip on his shirt over his heart. When Quatre didn't respond, Duo tried again.

"Q-dude, you can't let him get to you is all…I mean, we all killed and hurt a lot of people but it's over now." Quatre closed his eyes and turned his head away from Duo but the braided pilot didn't miss the tear that slid down his cheek. Duo removed his arm from Quatre's shoulder and moved to sit right in front of the sullen boy. Quatre didn't look at him as he spoke but instead focused on the corner of the room just past Duo's left shoulder.

"You don't understand Duo…these people…they may not have been very important to me but they are former employees that I could've mingled with at one of father's parties…and now I've killed them." More tears ran down Quatre's cheeks and Duo began to tear up as well at the mere sight of it.

"It's just hard to realize that you've killed a complete stranger that is actually a lot closer to you than you think they are." Duo gently raised his hand to Quatre's chin and pulled him so that they were eye to eye. Tears streamed down both of their faces as they just stared at each other. Quatre closed his eyes again and covered his face with his hands as he began to sob into them. Taking in a deep shaky breath, Duo instantly pulled Quatre in for a hug and held him as he cried.

"Quatre, you couldn't have known. You can't stop yourself from screwing up, trust me I should know."

With a sigh, Duo buried his face his Quatre's hair as he held the boy closer to him. Quatre wrapped his arms around Duo tighter and wished that he would never have to leave this spot.

"How can you even be sure that this all isn't just a trick? That it isn't some stupid ploy just to get you to give up?" At this, Quatre sniffled and looked up at Duo.

"Well…even if it is true, it is in the past and you're right, I can't do anything about it. I can't go back and change the fact that they're dead. What's worse is exactly what Axel said; that I've dragged you down with me even though you have nothing to do with this. I swore that I would never do this to any of my friends…but especially not you Duo." More tears welled up in Quatre's eyes and he was shocked as Duo suddenly made him sit across from him again. Duo held the blonde by his shoulders as he spoke.

"Quatre." There was so much compassion behind that one word that the blonde couldn't help but stop his quivering to listen to what Duo had to say.

"You haven't dragged me anywhere. First of all, I was the one that followed you when you were taken and I did that all on my own will," Quatre was about to interrupt when Duo put a finger to his lips. "And second of all, I would've followed you anywhere to prevent you from feeling anything close to what you're feeling now. I can't stand to see you like this…" Quatre blinked a few times somewhat confused about the situation and watched as Duo slowly looked away from him.

"Duo…I…" Quatre was interrupted as Duo unexpectedly looked back to him and pulled the blonde in for a gentle yet heated kiss.

For the first time in a long time, Quatre's empathy was filled with love and joy emitted from Duo and the blonde was overwhelmed with an emotion more powerful than even hatred or despair. Time seemed to stop as the kiss continued and slowly Quatre began to kiss back, much to Duo's relief and happiness. Soon enough both boys were out of air and their lips parted almost as dramatically as they had come together. Taking in deep breaths, the boys stared at each other with eyes full of passion and devotion before Quatre broke the stare as a blush came over him and forced his head to turn away in embarrassment.

Duo chuckled to himself as his own blush settled into his cheeks but he grew serious, despite the huge grin still plastered on his face. Quatre turned back to Duo as the braided pilot began to speak.

"Quatre, I've been…"

Duo's expression dropped as did Quatre's as the horrifying sound of the locks unlocking disrupted any joyful moment they may have had. Quatre suddenly had his hand clinging fearfully to Duo's arm but Duo was more determined than ever as he watched Kale walk through the doorway and into their cell.

End

(---)

Well, I hope that this chapter was enjoyable. I really loved finally writing the scene between Quatre and Duo there at the end; it gave me goose bumps!

There is a lot more action to come, and I'm thinking one more chapter to go with possibly an epilogue as well to wrap everything up.

Please review! I love any type of feedback. If you loved it, I'd love to hear from you. If you hated it, tell me what I can improve. All I ask is that, if you want to flame me, please try and be respectful still.

Please also check out my updated profile to see exactly what I am working on at the moment. Hopefully something else might spark your interest. ;)

Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I still do not own any part of Gundam Wing.

Well, here is another chapter of Kidnapped! Get Excited! I know I am.

Thank you so much to all of my regular readers and reviewers! Also a special thank you to those of you who have also checked out my other stories. The feedback is wonderful and it inspires me so much. I just love this story to death so I'm really happy that other people enjoy it too.

Read, Enjoy, Review!

Author Note: Alright readers, there is some fighting again in this chapter and I apologize if something doesn't quite make sense or anything like that. If you want some clarity on anything please feel free to e-mail, tell me in a review or talk to me on AIM or MSN Messenger. I am here for you if you need something. :)

Chapter 6

With a malicious grin, Kale entered the cell and looked upon his two victims. Duo immediately rose from the ground despite Quatre's protests. Standing protectively in front of the blonde, Duo spoke.

"What do you want Kale?"

The man's only answer was to close the heavy cell door behind him and grin even more as all three heard the locks clicking closed again. Duo snarled under his breath and turned to look down at Quatre. The blonde looked up at his braided friend with tears building up behind his eyes as his thoughts wondered. 'Something just doesn't feel right here…I can't detect Kales' true emotions…'

"I'm here for your friend Duo but I guess you can watch." Quatre suppressed a gasp at this and watched as Duo turned his glare back to the man in front of them. Without taking his eyes off of Kale, the braided pilot spoke.

"You're not getting anywhere near Quatre." Kale merely grunted at this.

"Over your dead body it is then."

Without warning, Duo ran towards Kale and attacked him with a swift kick to the man's chest. Kale fell against the wall and couldn't even move before Duo was throwing punches furiously at him. Quatre watched in amazement from his spot on the floor but still had a bad feeling deep in his stomach. His judgment was correct as suddenly Kale swapped their positions and had Duo pinned instead of himself. The man took a moment to wipe a small trickle of blood from his lip before arrogantly smirking again and beginning his counter attack.

Kale slammed his fist deep into Duo's stomach and took a moment to watch as Duo coughed and trembled from the utter pain. Quatre winced at the sight and raised his hand to his chest as a burning pain hit him like a speeding truck. Quatre couldn't help but crumple in his position on the floor as Kale landed more angry punches on Duo. In the background, Duo cried out in pain as a sickening crack sounded throughout the cell; any fractured or cracked rib that Duo had acquired up to this point was definitely broken now. Chuckling to himself, Kale watched as Duo fell to the floor clutching his rib cage and breathing heavily. Duo only had a moment to recompose before Kale grabbed him from the floor by his shirt and threw him across the room.

'I've got to will myself to move! I've got to help him…this damn empathy…' Quatre could only watch as his braided friend was tossed like a rag doll across their cell and he gripped his chest harder, closing his eyes tightly.

"DUO!"

Duo's bloodied body landed with a loud thud and it seemed that Duo had reached his limit. Quatre couldn't help the tears that flowed from his eyes as he looked on. Hearing a snicker from the opposite direction reminded Quatre of Kale's presence and a look of horror crossed the blonde's face as the man began his stride towards him. Silently, Quatre prayed that Axel might walk through that door and save them again but another voice took his place as Duo refused to give in. Kale stopped walking and crossed his arms over his chest.

"What did I tell you…? You're not going to touch him." Duo slowly lifted himself off of the ground and began to tread over to Quatre. The blonde sat upright and observed Duo as he walked. He held one arm against his rib cage as the other just hung by his side until Duo lifted it to wipe some of the blood from his face. As soon as Duo had reached Quatre, the braided pilot kneeled down at his side with a half-hearted smile. Gradually, he lifted a hand to wipe the tears from Quatre's eyes and then let it settle on the blonde's shoulder.

"Don't worry buddy. I've got it covered." Quatre furrowed his brow and moved a hand to cling to Duo's hand on his shoulder.

"Duo…please…don't. I need you." Quatre's voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke but before Duo could say anything in response, Kale was right next to them. Both boys stared up at him as he towered over them and even blocked their one swinging light source. Duo gave one last look to Quatre before swinging his leg into Kale's and, in one smooth motion, knocking the man to the floor. Quatre yelped as he dodged the man's huge body as it almost fell on the two of them and watched as Duo attacked again. After Duo kicked Kale in the stomach a few times, the older man just rolled away from him which didn't sit well with Duo as he was rolling towards Quatre. The braided pilot ran after and blocked him but was "rewarded" with Kale jumping to his feet and grabbing Duo's smaller frame from behind. Kale looked straight at a completely shocked Quatre as he spoke into Duo's ear.

"Let's finish this."

With that, Kale pushed Duo forward until they were about to reach the edge of the cell. Duo closed his eyes firmly as Kale rammed him and his broken ribs into the wall. Quatre wrinkled his shirt even more with how much he was clutching it as Duo screamed in agony. Kale pressed all of his weight into Duo causing the pilot to cry out more. He then grabbed one of Duo's arms holding it behind Duo's back forcefully and twisting it under his grasp.

"Stop! Stop it now!" Quatre screamed at Kale and slammed his free hand down on the cell floor. Quatre could hear as Duo tried to hold in his whimpers of pain and decided that he wouldn't just sit there anymore. Gathering all of his strength and doing his best to ignore the fiery pain in his chest, Quatre quickly rose from the floor and began running towards the two. Just before he was about to reach them, Kale pulled Duo away from the wall and held him out in front of him as a shield while still holding Duo's arm behind his back. Quatre gasped to himself and immediately put on the brakes but wasn't able to stop himself before Kale swung his leg around striking the blonde directly on his shoulder. Quatre clutched his shoulder in pain as he fell to the floor and rolled away from simply the force of the kick.

"Quatre!" Duo began struggling in Kale's arms despite the utter pain it induced upon his arm that was still twisted behind his back. Quatre trembled on the floor from the sting of his shoulder and looked up in terror as the scene unfolded. Finally, Kale let go of Duo's arm and turned the boy to face him. Within a second, Kale had reared his arm back and punched Duo in the mouth so hard that the braided pilot flew backwards and onto the floor of the small room immediately unconscious. Kale then turned towards Quatre and began swiftly moving towards him. Quatre only looked towards Duo's unmoving body with more tears streaming down his face. He felt as Kale began to crawl on top of his quivering form.

* * *

From the car window the bland white warehouse didn't look very big but as the three pilots stealthily climbed the hill, the building grew bigger and bigger. Heero led the way followed by Trowa always keeping a sharp eye out and then Wufei covering the back. Once they were close enough, the three hid behind some bushes to go over the plan. Heero took a quick glance around before speaking in a hushed tone.

"This place only has a few guards on the outside and who knows how many people on the inside." Trowa and Wufei nodded for Heero to continue. "Once that guard gets close enough, we grab him. If need be, he'll be a hostage to get us in."

They waited until the guard was in the right position and Heero gave Trowa the signal to go in. Trowa nodded and instantly jumped into the air. After a few flips, Trowa landed silently behind the guard in question. Feeling the sudden presence, the guard began to turn only to have Trowa cover his mouth before delivering a quick knee to the man's stomach. Wufei then came to aid Trowa in carrying the struggling man and his weapon back to the bushes before anyone else came. Once they were in the bushes, the man looked around bewildered at the three but focused as Heero began speaking.

"We're not going to hurt you unless you don't cooperate so I suggest you not say a word unless I ask you a question." To prove that they were serious, Heero flashed the man his gun. Eyes wide, the man slowly nodded to Heero and Trowa removed his hand from the man's mouth but both he and Wufei still kept a firm grip on their captive. Much to their relief, the man didn't yell or scream for help but only looked to them for their questions. Heero took a moment to calm himself down and take in the situation. He looked the man over briefly and was surprised to see that the guard was dressed in regular civilian clothing. He hadn't expected the best from their kidnappers but he had certainly expected more than just jeans, a blue long-sleeve shirt and a puffy red vest. Heero stored this bit of information in the back of his mind and focused back on the situation at hand.

"Where are 02 and 04?"

At this, the guard just frowned and shrugged. Heero sighed and repeated the question.

"I really don't know what you're talking about…" Heero looked to Trowa who had been looking at the man's face as he spoke. Trowa turned to face Heero and nodded to say that he thought the man was telling the truth. This time, Wufei repeated the question but rephrased it a bit.

"Do you know if there are two kidnapped teenagers in that building?" Again the man shrugged.

"What do they look like?" Heero answered the question.

"One is blonde and is dressed relatively nice and the other has a long brunette braid and probably a goofy look on his face. They were brought here earlier this morning probably blindfolded."

"Well, I wouldn't know I only got here a few hours ago. Though I do recall there being racket inside about two teens just before I got here but I never saw them." Heero raised an eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean you got here a few hours ago? Where did you come from?"

"I was transferred here just today." The man shakily looked down at Heero's gun before looking back up into Heero's eyes, "Please don't kill my family…"

Judging by the utter terror in this man's eyes, Heero instantly knew that there was something missing here. 'This man is genuinely terrified of us…but why? Why would Quatre and Duo's kidnappers be afraid of us? He doesn't even know who we are or what's going on…' Just then something in Heero's mind clicked and his eyes widened. Wufei noticed the look on his face.

"Heero?" The leader only looked back to the man that his companions were holding back.

"I promise you that your family will be safe. Don't worry." Heero then looked to Trowa and Wufei. "Let him go."

Trowa looked at Heero confused and only complied when Heero began to stand. Wufei and Trowa let the man go and stood as well. The guard merely sat and watched from his position on the ground as Heero directed.

"Stay behind me. Cover me and no matter what I do, keep your guns ready." Heero retrieved his gun and gave one last glance at the guard that was still staring at them in disorientation. "Is the front door open?" The man nodded slowly at him.

Heero looked back to Trowa and Wufei's also confused faces and reassured their faith in him.

'Trust me."

Before they had the chance to react, Heero was already on his way towards the giant doors leading into the warehouse.

* * *

(1) Inside the warehouse, three young women were conversing while folding their various piles of laundry. The three seemed in their own world separate from the bustle around them as they laughed and carried on. Even though each was different in their own way, they all seemed to mesh together very well. The first woman was a brunette and looked a lot younger than she really was. She had the tiniest frame of them all but she could definitely get feisty and defend herself if she needed to. The next was a redhead with very pale but beautiful skin. She was the calmest of the group and had this hidden ability to balance everyone out. The last was a blonde with a lot of attitude; it was always all or nothing with this one. She got things done and got them done her way or someone would be taken out as fair dealing.

The three were interrupted from their folding as another young blonde woman ran up to them excitedly. The brunette immediately stood up to hug their other friend and yelped as she was picked up off the ground by the excited blonde. After putting her down, she smiled at the three of them and began to gossip about two of their other friends performing unholy acts in the supply closet. The three gasped and chuckled at the thought before continuing with their work.

They were once again interrupted when suddenly the doors to the warehouse flew open and they watched as a teenage boy ran inside, followed by two others. Curious as ever, the four women jumped up and ran to crowd around with everyone else.

* * *

Heero threw open the warehouse doors and, keeping his gun at his side, stormed into the room. He took a look around and smiled to himself.

'Just like the guard outside…everyone here is dressed like any other person on the street.' Eventually, Heero was surrounded by faces staring at him bewildered and confused. He continued looking around and in the background saw the four young women as they tried to find out what was going on. Behind him, Trowa and Wufei stood with their guns poised watching with just as much confusion spread across their faces. A few women screamed at the sight of Trowa and Wufei's guns but were protected by the massive amount of people standing in front of them.

"What the hell is he doing? He's not even shooting anyone!" Wufei glanced to Trowa as he spoke. Trowa took the moment to look around and turned back to Wufei to shrug in response. Heero glanced over his shoulder and made sure that Wufei and Trowa were backing him before raising his own gun to an unsuspecting man's forehead. Heero turned to the man, who had immediately raised his arms up in surrender, and glared.

"Where's Axel?" The man stared at Heero with wide eyes and could only shake his head in response. From the edge of the crowd, clapping was heard and the crowd began to part as Axel walked towards the scene. Before the crowd could reform, the young blonde with the attitude snuck through to the front of the crowd.

"Lindy! Don't!" The redhead harshly whispered and tried to pull her back but was just short from grabbing the girl's arm. She turned back to her two other friends and sighed. "Why does she always do that?"

Heero smiled as he watched Axel saunter up to him. He took his gun away from the frightened man's forehead and turned it on Axel. Axel looked down at it casually and directed his attention back to Heero.

"Heero Yuy." Axel paused to look him over. "Well, I was expecting you quite a bit sooner than this but it'll do." Axel made it obvious that he was not scared of anything Heero had to offer but was shocked at what the pilot did next.

Heero merely looked up at Axel with a glare and a smirk before he carelessly tossed his gun behind him. Trowa and Wufei, with their guns still poised on Axel's forehead, blinked several times as Heero's gun landed at their feet. Axel looked perplexed for a moment but he masked it quickly and just stared back at the pilot. He chuckled a bit before finally speaking.

"You just made the biggest mistake of your life." Axel raised his hand to the people around him and instantly two men grabbed Heero by his arms and held him back. Heero just smiled more at this.

"Actually, I don't think I did." Axel curiously raised an eyebrow at him waiting to hear more. "In fact, I'll bet that in a few minutes these two," Heero tipped his head to indicate the two men holding him back and continued, "They'll be holding you back instead of me." At this, Axel began to laugh hysterically. Trowa and Wufei could not wrap their minds around what Heero was doing but they trusted him and continued to keep their guns out and ready. The crowd was mostly silent despite the occasional whispers traveling amongst the people. Lindy stared on in awe and wondered what was going on. Once Axel stopped cackling, he looked back to a still grinning Heero.

"Right." Axel shook his head. "That will never happen, boy. The only thing that is going to happen to you is that you'll finally get what you deserve just like you're friends. Now then, where is Kale?" Axel began to look around for Kale but was brought back to the conversation by Heero's voice.

"Why don't you tell them Axel?" Axel rolled his eyes.

"Tell who what?"

"Tell all the people here; tell them what's really going on." Axel's eyes suddenly got wide at this but Heero simply continued. "Tell them about why they're here, about why you kidnapped Quatre and Duo. Tell them about the money."

Axel glared at the boy and tried to change the conversation but despite his attempts, the crowd was still interested in what Heero had to say. Lindy, not wanting to wait anymore, pushed forward and shoved one of the men holding Heero back out of the way.

"What're you talking about? What money?" Heero looked to her before turning back to Axel to watch him squirm.

"I'm talking about the money that Mr. Winner sends to all of you every month; the money that he and Kale keep for themselves." Murmurs shot through the crowd and Axel suddenly froze in his place. Lindy did the talking again.

"Wait a second. You're saying that we've all been living off of nothing for so long and all the while those two have been hiding money from us?" Heero nodded to her.

"He's lied to all of you. Mr. Winner has sent checks for you all every month since he had to fire you and Axel has kept it all to himself. He even went to the trouble to have the checks forwarded to this address so they wouldn't be sent to the shelter while he was here." At that someone in the crowd spoke.

"You know…I did see envelopes with 'Forwarded Address' on them in his office once. That must be what those were." Axel began to sweat and was about to protest against all of these accusations but Heero interrupted.

"And now, he's kidnapped Mr. Winner's son and another friend of ours just to try and get vengeance." Axel glared at Heero and raised his hand up to strike Heero but before he could move an inch, two men were holding him in his place. Heero smirked up at Axel as the man fumed.

"You're going to believe this kid off of the street over me? How dare you! He doesn't know what he's talking about." The crowd only grew angrier.

"Let's search the place!"

Someone from the crowd yelled out and a few people, ignoring Axel's shouted protests, headed towards Axel's office to search for proof. At this point, Trowa and Wufei had put away their guns and joined Heero where he stood. Mere minutes later, men returned with the envelopes that Heero had described and other documentation of the checks being received and cashed; that was proof enough for the crowd and they immediately became outraged at Axel. Their work done there, the three pilots began the next part of their mission at the warehouse. Heero turned to Lindy.

"Do you happen to know where our friends are?" The blonde looked over at him and took a moment to think.

"I believe they're in a room in that corner of the building." Lindy pointed them in the right direction. Heero nodded his thanks to her and then the three were off.

"Yuy…how in the hell did you figure all that out?" Wufei looked over at his friend still somewhat bewildered at what just happened.

"Well, when Mr. Winner said that he sent support checks it got me thinking why would these people want to hurt Mr. Winner?" Trowa and Wufei nodded and Heero continued. "But then when we talked to the guard outside and he didn't even know what was going on and he was dressed just like any of us, I knew it had to be deeper than that. I don't know exactly how I put it all together really."

"Well, thank god you did." Trowa looked ahead as they approached the door to Quatre and Duo's cell. Heero reached out and began unlocking the door while Wufei looked back at the chaos surrounding a very angry Axel. The Chinese boy turned back just as Heero was opening the door.

Immediately the three pilots smelled the rank stench of blood. They entered the dark room and did not find a pretty sight. In the far right-hand corner of the small room, Duo was a crumpled unconscious heap and looked in pretty bad shape though he didn't look half as bad as the body in the middle of the room.

Kale's body was twisted and mangled in the middle of the cell and the pilots knew instantly that the man was not alive. Blood was splattered all over him and just looking him over it was obvious that at least one of his arms was broken with the definite possibility of several other broken limbs.

Taking in the scene, Wufei moved to Duo's side as Heero continued to look over the damage on Kale's body. Trowa just looked all around the cell. After a moment, Wufei and Heero put in their damage reports.

"Kale is definitely dead; he's got broken bones scattered throughout his body, a major blow to his head which probably is the ultimate reason for his death."

"Maxwell is injured pretty badly with some broken ribs possibly a sprained wrist but he'll be just fine with some rest and bandaging."

"Where's Quatre?"

Heero and Wufei stopped what they were doing and looked around them for any sign of the blonde but could not seem to find him. After another minute or so, Trowa took another glance at the darkest corner of the room. Slowly, he walked over to where he thought he saw a glimpse of blonde hair and was shocked at the sight.

There Quatre sat with his knees drawn up to his chest; his hand tightly clutched his shoulder as his other arm lay lifeless at his side. His blonde hair and pale skin was matted down with dirt and blood and his eyes were open wide full of fear. Trowa gasped to himself and rushed to the pilot's side. As he came closer, Trowa could hear as Quatre took in raspy breaths and could see as the blonde trembled all over.

"I've found him…" Trowa moved closer to Quatre and noticed his halfway unbuttoned shirt and already forming bruises on his pale skin. Softly, Trowa placed a hand on Quatre's knee and jumped when the blonde noticeably flinched away from him. Heero soon joined Trowa in the corner followed closely by Wufei who was carefully cradling Duo in his arms. Heero glared as he took in Quatre's condition.

"Quatre…we need to get out of here." Trowa tried to get Quatre's attention and felt a shiver run down his spine as the blonde slowly turned his head to him and stared with empty eyes.

"Quatre?" Heero spoke up and watched as Quatre slowly turned to look at him as well. Once he had his attention, Heero spoke again.

"Quatre, you need to move. Duo needs…" At the mention of Duo, Quatre's eyes went wide.

"Where is he?"

"He's right here Quatre but he needs help; you both do. We need to get out of here." Wufei kneeled down so that Quatre could see Duo. All three pilots watched as Quatre shifted to sit on his knees and then leaned forward with his good arm and touched Duo's face before fainting on the spot. Trowa caught Quatre before he could hit the floor and Heero leaned in and put a finger to Quatre's neck to check his pulse.

"His pulse is going crazy. We've got to get him out of here." Gently, Trowa moved to pick up Quatre completely.

"Let's go."

Heero hastily walked ahead and searched the crowd for Lindy. Once he found her, he pulled her aside and spoke.

"We've got to get our friends out of here. Are things covered on this end?" Lindy saw the conditions of the two pilots and immediately nodded. Heero continued. "Kale is in the cell; he's dead."

"Don't worry. We've got it covered; just get your friends help." Heero nodded to her. "And Heero? Tell Mr. Winner that we're sorry when you see him." With that, the pilots were off as quickly as they could to Heero's jeep.

End

* * *

You readers are lucky…I was thinking of ending the chapter just before you found out whose body was dead in the middle of the floor but I decided to not leave quite a big cliffy.

(1) – This section of the story is dedicated to and written about my 4 beautifully insane room mates. Without them, I would probably lose it and I'm sure that I probably drive them crazy too so to thank them I gave them some small roles. Lots of love:D

Well, I hope that this chapter was up to par and that you enjoyed it! Please Review!

Thank you!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Wing franchise or anything even relatively as expensive.

Author Note: Alright, I know I know, it's been quite a while since the last update but you must realize that I'm a college kid and I'm so busy. If I'm not working then my roomies are distracting me, it's just insanity. Plus, my computer was having problems for a while. Anyhow, here is chapter 7. It's probably not the best chapter because it was written in so many different pieces, but this is about as good as it's going to get right now, though I do apologize for any crappy writing that occurs.

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

As gently as possible, Trowa placed Quatre across the back seat of Heero's jeep. Wufei, after moving everything in the back of the jeep to the front seat, laid Duo down in the back. Once everything and everyone was secure, Heero began the drive back. Trowa and Wufei were sure to protect their two friends as the jeep shifted and turned along the bumpy road; Trowa also took this time to assess all of Quatre's injuries. Trowa grimaced as he checked over the usually lively blonde.

"Trowa?"

The emerald-eyed boy looked up as he heard Wufei say his name. From the back of the jeep, Wufei was looking over the seat and watching Trowa's expression change from bad to worse as he checked over their friend. Trowa rubbed his head for a moment before replying.

"Sorry Wufei…it's just hard to look at him like this, you know?" Wufei nodded and waited for Trowa to continue. "Well, good news Quatre isn't actually as bad as he looks; bad news that's only the view from the physical side of things." Trowa sighed to himself. "On the outside, Quatre has some bad bruising, possibly some bruised or fractured ribs, a gunshot wound in his leg that seems to already be healing somewhat and a bad dislocated shoulder but other than that he could jog a mile in a few days and be just fine. Mentally on the other hand…I'm not so sure."

"With Duo still alive, he'll recover eventually." Trowa looked to the front of the car. "He already showed signs of looking better when he saw that Duo was still alive. Besides, we'll all be there for the both of them." Heero spoke in a monotone voice but the other two knew that what he was saying was completely heart-felt and true. "On that note, who's going to call Mr. Winner and tell him the news?" Wufei and Trowa groaned at the thought but eventually Trowa agreed to do it as long as the other two stood by for back-up.

* * *

Despite all of the work he had needed to finish that day, Mr. Winner had put it all aside and still anxiously waited for any news on his son. He looked at his watch for the thousandth time in the past few hours and sighed. It was nearing dinner-time and he had still not heard back from Heero or the others.

Not long after they had left, Mr. Winner had heard from his people that had gone to check out the shelter for any sign of Axel, Kale or the missing pilots. To his relief and despair, they had reported none of the people in question there; the wait for Heero to return began. With another sigh, Mr. Winner stood to go retrieve another glass of water for his dry throat but was interrupted when one of his many butlers opened the door to his office.

"Mr. Winner, sir?" The older man looked to his butler anxiously and urged him to continue.

"You have a phone call, sir." Mr. Winner mumbled his thank you as he ran for the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Winner?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's Trowa Barton." At this, Mr. Winner released the breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding in and continued the conversation.

"You have news about Quatre? How is he? What's going on?"

"Yes, sir. He's fine, some minor injuries as far as we can tell at the moment. We're on our way back now."

"Oh thank goodness he is safe; my Quatre is safe." Mr. Winner took a moment to compose himself as he was overcome with relief. "I will tell my doctors to be ready."

"Mr. Winner?"

"What's wrong?"

"We are actually just going to take him home. We think he'd rather wake up in his own house and we are completely capable of managing his injuries." Mr. Winner became outraged.

"What? You cannot take my son away from me! He needs to come here so that he can be properly attended to. I need to see my son!"

"Mr. Winner…"

"No, no you can't do this to me! What do you boys know about taking care of an injured person? This is ridiculous!"

"Mr. Winner, please calm down…" Trowa was interrupted again by the man's raving on.

"I have highly paid doctors; Quatre needs to see them immediately so you have to bring him here right now!" Trowa couldn't take anymore of this.

"Mr. Winner!" Once he had calmed down, Trowa continued in a calmer manner, "Trust me when I say that Quatre is not going to want to be surrounded by complete strangers when he wakes up; you have no idea what the situation completely entails. And considering the fact that if he comes to your doctors we won't be able to see him, he is not going to be happy there. We've gotten him through thus far, please trust us."

It took all that Mr. Winner had in him to keep from screaming even more and he finally gave in.

"Alright Mr. Barton, I trust you three; you did rescue him in the first place, but I want updates as soon as they happen. And I'll be coming over once I can catch up with all the work I missed today." Trowa agreed to these terms and the two said their short good byes before hanging up. Mr. Winner sighed again and sat back down in his office chair just relieved that his son was alive.

* * *

As soon as they pulled up to the huge mansion, Heero was out of the jeep ready to help his friends. Tenderly, Trowa and Wufei carried Quatre and Duo into the house and straight to a guest bedroom. As those two set their friends onto the beds in that room, Heero was grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom. Trowa looked down at Quatre when he noticed his facial features tightening in pain. He moved his fingers to the blonde's neck and was shocked to feel his still erratic pulse. Just as he was about to yell to Heero, the brown-haired boy appeared at his side with a sedative in hand. Trowa stepped back to give him some room and looked over to Duo and Wufei.

The Chinese boy was just about to look at his friend's injuries as he heard the braided pilot groan in pain. Wufei's eyes widened as Duo slowly began to shift on the bed before gradually opening his eyes. With a groggy and scratchy voice Duo looked at his surroundings and spoke.

"Wha…where am I?" Duo jumped somewhat as Wufei came into his view but was soon relieved to see his friend. "Fei? What's going on?"

Wufei looked at the braided pilot confused for a moment before explaining, "Duo, we're at Quatre's mansion, we rescued you from Axel and Kale?" Duo's eyes shot open in shock; unfortunately his body shot forward as well so before Duo could say a word, he uttered possibly the worst sound any of the pilots had heard in quite a while. Heero grimaced at his friends' wailing and both he and Trowa joined Wufei at the braided boy's side. Wufei forced Duo to sit back again while hushing him and telling him not to move so suddenly.

"Duo, you've got a few broken ribs you need to chill!" Duo held back any other cries of pain he had while softly clutching his rib cage and trying to get out the words he would've said had he gotten the chance before the pain arrived.

"Quat…re…where…is he?"

"He's here, in the other bed. He'll be alright Duo." Trowa flashed him a weak smile and moved so the braided boy could see. With sad eyes, Duo looked over at the blonde. He held in sobs at the sight of his friend covered in blood, dirt and unsightly purple bruises. Faintly he heard Heero talking to him in the background but his thoughts were consumed with his need to walk over to that bed and just hold Quatre in his arms so it would all go away. Suddenly Duo was again overcome with pain and closed his eyes tightly as he began to cough.

"Duo, are you listening?" Heero looked stopped his rambling to look down as Duo raised a hand to cover his mouth as more coughs consumed him.

"Shit…Maxwell…!"

* * *

Heero entered the room as silently as possible to check in on his two injured friends. He sat himself down in a chair between the two beds and looked over at Quatre and Duo and how the moonlight hit their faces. It had been only a few hours since they had gotten back but it felt like longer because of all that had happened in the time they had actually been there. Heero's mind couldn't help but wander back to the events leading up to now. Duo waking up and soon after beginning to cough then noticing that he was coughing up blood and watching Trowa immediately run to call Sally. Heero cringed as he thought back to having to hold Duo down as he threw himself about still coughing up a storm and probably making whatever internal bleeding he already had worse. Eventually Sally showed up and pushed the boys out the door so she could check on the two injured and the three impatiently waited. When Sally finally came back out of the room, she reported that the two would be fine with some rest and that she had taken care of all the bandaging and everything for them. They all bowed their thanks to the woman before Wufei showed her out.

'And now here I am…' Heero thought to himself hopelessly and continued to stare upon his friends' sleeping faces. He broke his stare away from them as he rubbed his temples. 'What would I do without them? What would any of us do?' Heero smiled slightly as he looked back to his two friends and felt as a lone tear slid down his cheek. Despite his efforts to hide his emotions, Heero could not help but shed a tear for his closest companions. Ever since the war when he had met up with his four friends, the lost soldier had never felt better about life but more importantly about himself. It was such a treasure to have friends like he had so it really did hit him hard when he came so close to losing even one of them.

Even though he had become much closer to Duo, Heero still felt a great connection with Quatre as well which is why he wasn't surprised when Duo had told him about his feelings for the blonde. Heero remembered the many conversations they had had where he had held Duo because his heart ached so much for Quatre but he was too scared to tell him. And though Heero already knew through Trowa that the blonde felt the same, he also knew that Duo and Quatre needed to work it out on their own. Heero chuckled to himself at the memories; the several dinners and such where Duo and Quatre would flirt with each other so transparently but neither knew of the others' feelings. You knew it was obvious when even Wufei questioned Heero and Trowa one day about the two flirting non-stop.

Heero stirred from his recollections as he heard movement and looked up to meet with Duo's violet eyes. The stoic pilots' own eyes widened as he stood to move to Duo's side and Duo looked up at him in a daze.

"Heero? What's going on?" Duo moved to sit up but was stopped by Heero's strong grip on his shoulders willing him back down.

"Duo, you should still be sleeping; you need rest." Duo looked up at Heero confused for a moment before the memories flooded back into his mind and he became suddenly exhausted at just the thought. Heero watched as Duo went from wide awake to drowsy and then back to being alert again.

"Okay, but now I'm awake and I intend to stay that way. So give me the update and don't pretend like there isn't one because there's always an update. The last thing I remember is coughing a lot." Duo looked at Heero, eyes full of curiosity so much so that Heero couldn't deny him his wish. With a sigh, the blue-eyed pilot pulled his chair closer to Duo's bed and sat back down.

"Well, you were coughing up blood so we called Sally. She showed up, kicked us out of the room and then when she was finished looking at the two of you she told us that you would be just fine after a few days and/or a week of rest." Duo blinked at the rushed explanation and would've demanded to know the whole story but he had the strangest feeling that Heero had already said it all so he kept his mouth shut. Instead, the braided pilot risked a glance over to his blonde friend. Duo took a deep breath and immediately felt the need to be closer.

"Heero?" Duo waited for his friend to look back at him before continuing, "Do you think you could move me a little closer?" Heero smiled softly at the boy before moving back to the side of his bed.

"I can do better than that." Especially gently, Heero picked up his braided friend and carefully moved him to the unoccupied side of Quatre's bed. Duo, shocked at first, looked up at Heero and merely smiled his thanks. Heero gave a quick nod in return before leaving the room.

Duo carefully rolled onto his aching side to face the other pilot. Quatre still appeared to be fast asleep and remained still even as Duo tenderly caressed the blonde's cheek and scooted closer to the boy. Duo once again closed his eyes as he nestled his head in Quatre's uninjured shoulder and fell back to sleep.

(---)

It had been two days since the two pilots had been rescued and still Quatre had not awoken. He showed all signs of healing and getting better so no one was too worried but Duo still took it hard. He stayed by Quatre's side continuously until he became restless and, though he was still not perfectly healthy himself, would walk about the house looking for anything that he could do without straining himself too much. No one slept or ate barely anything as their worry weighed down on them.

Trowa would stay with Quatre and read when Duo wasn't in the room with him. As he was reading, he would occasionally look up to check Quatre's breathing or sometimes even check his vitals periodically just to be cautious. All the pilots knew how important the blonde was to all of them as a fellow pilot and a friend; they didn't know what they would do without him.

* * *

Dazed and confused eyes scanned the pitch black room as a figure tried to navigate their way around. A light breeze ruffled their dirtied hair for a moment before dying down to a dull chill. Without them really knowing, the scenery changed and there was suddenly a small light off in the distance. Raising their hand to rub their eyes for a moment, the figure tried again to locate where they were. Their surroundings had no decoration whatsoever beyond the light and a cracked mirror on the nearby wall; anything else was shrouded in darkness. Slowly the figure made their way over to the mirror and gazed upon their reflection. A normally flawless appearance was suddenly ragged and torn; their platinum hair and bright eyes having lost their typical luster. Without moving an inch, the figure looked on as the mirror shattered in its place and the light had all of the sudden shifted right behind them. Barely getting a moment to turn around, the figure lost their balance and fell to the ground. Shielding their eyes from the abrupt amount of light, the figure stared up and watched as two other shadows seemed to be fighting each other. Not a moment later, a massive weight was suddenly on top of the blonde, hands roaming all over. The two bodies struggled against each other and a shiver ran up the blondes' back as their demeanor changed. Suddenly, they were filled with rage as they blindly reached for the person above them releasing a horrendous scream.

Trowa immediately dropped the washcloth he had been wetting as Quatre's cries rang through the house. He moved without thinking and ran to the blonde's bedside shocked to see his previously unmoving friend violently thrashing around in a deep sleep. Trowa tried to hold him down, as to not let him injure himself any worse, but was horribly failing at his task until he was suddenly joined by the three other pilots.

"What's going on with him?" Heero joined Trowa in trying to hold Quatre down as he spoke but even the both of them could not stop the blonde from kicking and screaming. Wufei was trying this best to check Quatre's vitals but anytime he would get close enough, he would be shoved away.

"Get away! No! DUO!" Quatre screamed louder than ever before and kicked even more at his friends restraining arms.

Duo instantly grabbed one of Quatre's thrashing hands, "Quatre, I'm here! I'm right here with you. Everything is okay." At this, Quatre furrowed his brow and stopped moving quite so violently to listen more as Duo continued talking. Once Quatre had calmed down enough for the two to let him go, Duo moved himself next to the blonde and continued to talk to him as Wufei checked him over. Remembering what he had been doing, Trowa returned to the bathroom to grab the damp washcloth and brought it back to put on Quatre's forehead. Duo took the washcloth from Trowa and placed it on the boy's forehead now whispering into his ear. Once Wufei was done checking Quatre over, he joined Heero off to the side.

"He seems to be doing just fine, a slight fever but nothing too bad; he was just having a regular nightmare." Heero nodded and couldn't help but frown as he watched the tears streaming down Duo's worried and Quatre's distressed expressions.

"Quatre…it's alright, I'm here." With Duo's words, Quatre's eyes groggily opened. After blinking a few times and a look around his surroundings, Quatre's eyes focused in on one person.

"Oh Duo!" With his good arm, Quatre immediately latched onto Duo and began to cry even harder. Duo merely hugged him back gently and sighed in relief that he had at least woken up. His words muffled in Duo's shoulder, Quatre spoke again.

"Thank goodness you're safe Duo…I…I…" With a small sigh, Quatre fell unconscious once again much to Duo's discontent as the braided boy resituated the blonde back in his bed.

"He's probably just still exhausted from…"

"I know," Duo cut Heero's faint voice off as he moved to the other side of the bed to lie down next to Quatre while addressing the pilots.

"I'm staying here with him until he's better." Knowing that there as no talking him out of it, the other pilots' consented and left the two to be alone for a while.

(---)

A few hours passed before Quatre's eyes flew open once again after having another nightmare. He blinked a few times before raising a hand to wipe the sweat from his brow and look at his surroundings. The room was dark but he was still able to recognize that it was a guest room in his mansion. Trying to sit up hurt too badly, so he just continued his scan of the room before his eyes fell upon the body next to him. For a moment, Quatre's breath quickened as he thought he was still dreaming, but he released a sigh of relief as Duo deeply inhaled and a small snore escaped him. With a smile, Quatre nestled closer to Duo's body and watched him for a little while. 'He just looks…perfect…' Taking a risk, Quatre then gently caressed Duo's cheek but stopped as the pilots' violet eyes fluttered open.

Quatre smiled, "Good morning." His voice was a little raspy but he was not about to ruin the moment by clearing his throat. Duo chuckled at this and took a moment to look at his watch.

"It's dinner time, silly." Quatre smiled even bigger at his friend and stared into his eyes, absorbing their wonder until suddenly Duo frowned a little.

"Q-ball, what're you even doing up? Are you feeling okay?" Quatre sighed and stopped Duo from putting his hand to the blonde's forehead; he had hoped this question wouldn't come up so quickly.

"I had another nightmare." Before Duo could bombard Quatre with more questions, Quatre cut him off, "Duo, I'm okay. Can we not talk about this right now? Please?"

Duo melted at the sight of Quatre's puppy-dog eyes and finally gave in, switching topics on the blonde.

"Then let's talk about something else…"

"Like what?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping to talk about…" Duo was interrupted by a light knock on the door followed by Heero entering the room.

"Quatre, you're awake?" Quatre looked up at Heero and smiled.

"Yes, I'm awake. How long have I been out?" Heero sat in the seat next to the bed as Quatre sat up and gently leaned against his pillow.

"About two days now, how're you feeling?" As Heero and Quatre conversed, Duo stared off with an annoyed glare and waited for Heero to leave.

"I'm feeling okay, I'll probably be up and running again in another day or so, but I just have to thank you so much for taking care of me. I know that we have a lot to talk about…"

"Yeah, we do but considering the glare that Duo's got on his face I think I have my cue to leave…" Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo as Quatre looked over to his face, curious to see what was going on. Duo's cheeks flared red for a moment as the two stared at him. Eventually, Heero rolled his eyes and patted Quatre on his good shoulder before exiting the room and closing the door.

"Duo?"

"Sorry….it's just, what I want to talk to you about…it's kind of impor-." Duo was interrupted yet again by the door opening and, this time, Wufei walking into the room.

"Hey, I heard that Quat was finally awake and actually not screaming." Wufei shot the two a small smile and sat down in the chair next to the bed. Quatre smiled back as Duo went back to his glaring.

"Hey Wufei, how're things?"

"They're alright but I was worried there for a while. How are you feeling?"

"He's feeling fine, he'll probably rest for another day or two but other than that he really appreciates your kindness." Duo butted into the conversation and flashed a sarcastic and fake smile before turning away about and grumbling to himself. Quatre blushed for a moment and looked back to Wufei embarrassed.

"Um, Fei? Do you think you could come back a little later?"

"Sure….what's his problem?"

"He's fine, he just has something he wants to talk to me about is all."

"Well, tell him to take a chill pill and to just ask me to leave next time." Wufei rolled his eyes at the braided boy and stood. "And if you need anything Quatre, just call any of us."

"Thanks." Quatre smiled to himself and watched as Wufei left the room. He took a second to think about how great his friends really were. Despite the fact that they saved his and Duo's butts in the first place, they were now looking after them and worried.

(---)

As Wufei shut the door to the guest room behind him, he looked up and saw Trowa walking towards him.

"Hey, I heard that Quatre was awake, I was gonna go in and see how he's doing." Trowa stopped walking as Wufei grabbed his arm and started to drag him the other way.

"Trust me; you don't want to go in there right now." Trowa blinked as he was drug away from the door and down the hallway.

(---)

Quatre released a content sigh as he turned back to Duo who he realized was still waiting to talk to him.

"Sorry Duo, what was it that you wanted to talk ab-."

Quatre was interrupted as Duo had suddenly pressed his lips against Quatre's. The blonde soon fell into the kiss as things heated up. He raised a hand to hold Duo behind his neck as Duo moved to deepen the kiss even more. Quatre moaned between kisses and completely melted in Duo's arms. The braided pilot slowly pulled away the slightest bit and chuckled as Quatre pouted.

"That is what I wanted to talk about." Quatre whimpered quietly.

"Less talky, more kissy." Quatre pushed his and Duo's lips back together as the two made-out until Duo parted them once again.

"So, I'm guessing this means we're a couple?" Quatre smiled at him.

"Yes…now quit ruining the moment you baka!" Duo chuckled and the two continued their make-out session.

(---)

End

Well? I know, it wasn't my greatest work in the least, but it was the best I could whip together right now. At least it was pretty long...right?

And don't worry, there is still more to come after this. After all, you still don't know how Quatre whooped Kale's butt! I hope you enjoyed!

Hoping to read your reviews,

Ice Princess


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Wing characters only the plot I put them through.

Author Note: Hey Readers! So I know it's been a very long wait since I've last posted and I really hope that you're still reading and that this satisfies most of what you want to hear. I think this chapter contains some of my best and worst writing. I know the plot doesn't seem may have been more boring without the action scenes and such but I can promise that the ending will bring a little of that back.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8

The mid-morning sun shone brightly into the room and after yet another passionately tiring make-out session, Duo and Quatre snuggled under the covers sighing to themselves. The night before they had officially told their friends about being a couple to which Wufei exclaimed, "Finally!" Duo also quickly apologized for being so snippy with them before ushering Quatre back to bed to snuggle more.

Quatre smiled to himself and glanced over at his new boyfriend lovingly. It had not even been one day since they were official but he supposed that all of the emotion and secret feelings over the years had built it up exactly. For the first time in a while, things were right in their world.

Suddenly, Quatre furrowed his brow and began to sit up. Duo, noticing the warmth of his lover gone, looked up to his worried face.

"What's wrong Q? Are you alright?" Quatre's hand gently rubbed his chest as he began to feel different sensations with his empathy. "You sense something?"

"Yeah…it's not a bad emotion but it's very overpowering…worried…" Duo sat up as quickly as he could as Quatre's eyes grew wide. Before Duo could ask what was going on, his question was answered for him.

"Where is he? I need to see my son!" Duo's eyes followed suit as he heard Mr. Winner's voice bellowing throughout the hallways on the mansion. Looking down, Duo remembered that, in the heat of making out, he had thrown off his shirt and if possible, his eyes grew more. Footsteps were heard coming towards the room. Quatre turned to Duo frantically and looked him up and down before speaking hastily.

"Duo?" The brunette looked up to the very serious face of his lover as he took a deep breath. "I think you and I both agree that it would probably be bad for my father to walk in on his son in bed with a shirtless guy friend of his and the obvious intention of relations beyond mere friendship so what the _hell_ are you waiting for? HIDE!" Duo had no time to comprehend as Quatre forcefully shoved the braided pilot off the bed. Duo landed with a thud and, after a quick look around at his options, rolled under the bed immediately while listening quietly to the conversation happening outside the room and nursing his throbbing side.

"Mr. Winner he might be asleep, at least let me go in and check first." Heero had his arms spread across the doorway and a hesitant look on his face as he tried to stall.

"Mr. Yuy, I think that my son will miss some sleep to see me and you _will_ let me by to see him." Mr. Winner shoved Heero out of the way and tugged open the door to Quatre's room just as Quatre had finished tidying up the bed.

"Son? Quatre? Are you awake?" Double checking the surrounding area for any evidence of his previous activity, Quatre managed to choke out a response.

"Oh…Father! I had no idea you were coming today…How are you doing?" Mr. Winner almost jogged over to the bed where Quatre was lying when he heard him speak.

"Quatre! Thank goodness, you're all right. I've been worried sick for days" Mr. Winner paused, "Are you alright?" Mr. Winner stared at Quatre with a worried look as he sat down on the edge of the bed. The blonde quickly glanced around as his father's expression dropped.

"What is it?"

"Quatre, your face is completely flushed. Do you have a fever? You haven't been moving around a lot yet have you?" Quatre's eyes widened as his face grew even redder with his blush and he tuned back in as he realized that his father had continued speaking.

"…you're sure that you're okay here, it wouldn't be a problem to move you to the medical wing in my mansion or even a hospital; Quatre, you need to be taken care of…"

"Father! Please."

Below the bed, Duo had been struggling to hold in a sneeze; after rolling around in dusty under-the-bed-muck, it would hard to imagine anyone not having to sneeze. He had tried holding his nose and his breath but it became too much. Duo pushed up on the mattress to try to warn his love. Taken aback by the sudden jerk of his mattress, Quatre blinked a few times before realizing what that probably meant. Mr. Winner, feeling the mattress move as well, stood from his spot on the bed and looked around for a moment. The blonde tried his best to think of something but before he could set up a distraction, Duo couldn't take anymore and let loose a loud sneeze.

Mr. Winner turned back to Quatre who quickly put his hands up to his face. "Excuse me?" The older man, not buying the story, began to kneel down to the ground but before he could make another move, Quatre had latched himself around his father's shoulders.

"I've missed you Father." Mr. Winner smiled and gently wrapped his own arms around his son giving him a light pat on the back. Quatre and Duo both sighed silently in relief.

As they parted, Mr. Winner looked at his son's eyes for the first time throughout the conversation and couldn't help but feel tears well up behind his own eyes.

"I'm sorry Quatre…" Mr. Winner paused, "I'm just glad you're okay."

The two smiled at one another before sharing another warm embrace until suddenly Quatre remembered something and pulled away disheartened.

"What's wrong Quatre?" Mr. Winner, taking a seat on the bed again, placed a hand on Quatre's as the blonde looked down with a look of despair on his face.

"I killed all those people…how can you call me son?"

"Quatre, the war's over…" Mr. Winner looked at his son confused.

"No…I mean all those people in the warehouse while I was under ZERO's influence during the war."

"What are you talking about son?" Quatre looked up at his father with a look of urgency.

"The warehouse that you built for all those employees and then… I killed them…? Is any of this ringing a bell? You must've heard about it." Mr. Winner raised an eyebrow and chuckled at this.

"Quatre who told you a lie like this? The warehouse I built for my former employees is still up and running like the day I built it and, despite the fact that many people have found jobs and left since then, some are still there and happy as can be." Quatre stared at his father with wide eyes as tears streamed down his face.

"But Axel said….it was just some dirty trick…" Quatre shook his head and wiped his face as he was struck with the realization. After a moment, he smiled back at his father to show that he was all right. "I'm glad it's not true." Mr. Winner smiled fondly at his son before standing again and planting a short kiss on Quatre's forehead.

"Are you okay now?"

"Yes father, I'll be alright…" Quatre looked up at his father as he put a firm hand on his good shoulder.

"You will never be anything less than perfect in my eyes son. Now, sadly, I have to go. You know, I missed a lot of work worrying about you all this time so I've got a lot to catch up on." Mr. Winner smiled at Quatre before giving him another hug and turning to leave. Quatre watched as his father walked away and didn't turn away until the door was completely shut; however, Quatre's eyes were soon torn away as another voice reentered the scene.

"You're lucky I love you so much…coz I'm gonna be bruised for weeks…" Quatre chuckled at his lover's rumpled shirtless appearance and immediately yanked the braided boy back under the covers with him.

As Quatre cuddled with Duo, he couldn't help but feel a sense of uneasiness in the back of his mind. It was then that he realized that before that conversation with his father, he hadn't really thought about what he and Duo had actually been through; just thinking about Axel and Kale sent shivers down Quatre's spine and he began not to feel well at all. Duo had noticed Quatre's shivers and began to ask him if he was all right but before he could even get the sentence out, Quatre had bolted to the bathroom.

As his brain was flooding with memories and emotions, Quatre began vomiting violently into the toilet. Throwing off the covers, Duo followed his lover into the bathroom and started rubbing his back again feeling the shivers running through Quatre's frail body.

"Quatre?" Duo spoke with a worried tone as the blonde continued to vomit despite the fact that he hadn't eaten for days. After a few more minutes, Quatre coughed a final time and leaned back into Duo's arms quivering and breathing short and panicked breaths. Duo leaned back against the wall and held the blonde close feeling the sweat covering his body and wiping the tears from his cheeks. Before either of them could get comfortable, Quatre leaned over the toilet once again and started coughing more. Growing more anxious by the second, Duo eventually stood again.

"Quatre, I'll be right back. I'm getting the others don't move." After receiving a nod from his lover, Duo ran as fast as he could to and out the bedroom door, through the hallway and towards the kitchen where he could smell someone cooking. When he finally reached the doorway, he was out of breath; Wufei turned in shock.

"Maxwell, what the hell is going on?"

"Quatre…he's…sick, really sick." Duo continued to pant between words as Wufei turned off the oven and through off his apron.

"Lead the way." Wufei followed suit as Duo began running back to the bathroom where Quatre was. Heero and Trowa quickly joined as they saw the two running for Quatre's room. Duo entered the bathroom first but stopped short as he saw Quatre passed out on the floor in front of them trembling even more intensely then before. The blonde coughed a few times before Duo gently picked him up off the floor and rocked him gently in his arms.

"What happened?" Trowa spoke softly as he observed the bathroom.

Duo shrugged and spoke as he wiped Quatre's face with a spare cloth. "I honestly do not know. His father left and we were just cuddling and all of the sudden he just made a dash for the bathroom and started puking."

"Well, we can see that part…" Heero made a face as he flushed the toilet for everyone's sake. "We should get him back to bed until we can figure out what's wrong with him." Duo complied willingly and tenderly carried his sick lover back to bed tucking him under the covers.

"Did he say anything about feeling badly?" Wufei touched his hand to Quatre's forehead and was shocked to feel not only that the blonde was extremely cold but also that he flinched away from the touch.

"No, he didn't say anything, the only thing that I noticed was that he was shivering and as I was about to ask him if he was warm enough, he jumped out of bed and flew into the bathroom."

"Well, he's freezing so we're definitely going to need more blankets." Trowa began pulling the blankets from the other bed and piling them on top of Quatre as Wufei continued. "But I'm afraid that's all that we can really do right now."

"What's wrong with him exactly?" Heero helped with the blankets and looked to Wufei for his answer.

"Well, if my assumptions are correct, I think he's suffering more from mental overload then physical illness but the only way we'll really know is to wait it out." With a pout, Duo climbed into the bed with Quatre and added some more warmth.

"I hate waiting…"

(---)

It was the dream again except this time Quatre was watching it all happen. The blonde pilot was standing off to the side watching himself in this persistent dream; he watched as the mirror shattered, as the light appeared and as the struggle between Duo and Kale happened again. With great intent, Quatre looked on and tried to figure why he was having this nightmare. Then the fateful moment began; Quatre watched the shadow of himself in his dream thrown to the ground by Kale.

Beginning to feel overwhelmed, Quatre looked away and his hand slipped subconsciously to his chest clutching his pink shirt tightly. After a few moments, Quatre turned his head to look back but the light switched off and the room was dark except for the spot that Quatre was standing in. Glancing around in confusion, Quatre wondered what was going on until suddenly he felt a hand around his left elbow. The hand tugged on Quatre's arm until he spun completely around. Within that split second, Quatre was looking down the barrel of a gun and into Axel's eyes; the trigger pulled.

Quatre shot up in bed his hand immediately flying to his forehead in utter shock. Not realizing it, Quatre was breathing sporadically and too heavily as tears and sweat ran down his face. He faintly heard Duo to his left and saw Wufei and Trowa standing in front of him through clouded eyes. Not knowing much of what was going on and beginning to feel very faint, Quatre tried his best to just calm himself and settled back down into his bed. He felt for a moment as Duo's warm hand squeezed his gently before it abruptly left and Quatre slipped back into nothingness.

(---)

Duo was just about to fall to sleep when his love unexpectedly sat up in bed shocking everyone in the room. Duo's eyes flew open and up to see what was going on but he did not like what he saw. Quatre was clutching his forehead and breathing like there was no tomorrow; he barely seemed conscious at all.

"Quatre?" Duo tried to speak to the blonde and put his hand in the blonde's to try to get his attention but nothing seemed to be working. Duo closed his eyes before briefly squeezing Quatre's hand and then running from the room.

Without a word or a moment's thought, Heero was following Duo's footsteps down the long hallway and into the sitting room. After seeing Duo on the couch with his knees pulled up to his chest, Heero slowed his run to a jog then to a casual walk. Approaching slowly, Heero moved to sit on the couch next to his braided friend. Before Heero could say anything, Duo propped his head up on his knees.

"I can't see him like that…it's too hard…" Tears made their way down Duo's cheeks as he furiously tried to stop them; Heero couldn't help but feel sympathy for him even though he chose not to show it.

"Duo, it's hard for all of us…" Duo shook his head as more tears fell.

"No it's not, not like it's hard for me; you have no idea." Heero looked at his friend perplexed by his comment.

"But…don't you love him?" Duo's eyes flew open at this.

"Of COURSE I do!" Heero sat unmoved by Duo's quite loud reaction and listened intently for Duo to go on. After a long sigh, Duo complied with Heero's silently powerful request.

"I just…I don't know what's wrong and obviously he can't tell me. I clearly need some time…we both need some time."

Heero nodded to this and raised his arm to Duo's shoulder, giving it a compassionate squeeze before getting up and walking out of the room.

(---)

Hours passed as Quatre lay asleep in his bed until he began to toss and turn.

The dream was progressing just as it had the last time he had had it. Quatre stood watching the happenings of his nightmare unable to escape. He looked on; the mirror shattered, the fight between Kale and Duo, the fight between Kale and Quatre, the lights shutting off just as that emotional moment hit and Quatre knew what would happen next. He stood still awaiting his dream fate but no one approached. Quatre looked about the dark room in doubt not knowing how to get out of his nightmare. The blonde couldn't help but jump as he heard his name whispered throughout the room. Before he could even ponder the subject, a hand was grasping his arm and Quatre braced himself for what would happen as his body spun around. There was no gun, no Axel; Wufei stood before Quatre with a white glow around him and a smile on his face. Quatre opened his mouth to speak but before he knew it, his eyes were gazing upon the real world.

The drapes had been shut to keep the sunlight out but there was one source of illumination to Quatre's right. Wufei sat cross-legged in a big arm chair next to his bed with his reading glasses and a book huddling close to a dim lamp as to not disturb his resting friend. Quatre couldn't help but smile at his friend's kind efforts and even more so at his very modest reading glasses. Quatre slowly began to sit up causing Wufei to notice his presence and immediately walk to his aid.

"Quatre…are you alright?" Wufei spoke softly as he checked Quatre's pulse and temperature.

"Yeah…I'm okay…" Quatre paused as his thoughts wandered back to his dream, "It didn't end the same way…" Shooting the blonde a strange look, Wufei put a hand back to his forehead.

"What are you talking about? Are you feeling sick?" Completely perplexed and exhausted, Quatre shook his head before looking up to Wufei.

"You saved me…"

"Quatre," Wufei sat on the edge of the bed as he spoke. "I still don't know what you're talking about." Shaking his head in remembrance that Wufei really did not have any idea what was going on, Quatre shared a little more detail.

"I just keep having the same dream…but it changes each time."

"Okay, first of all, what is the dream about?"

"Well…it's about…what happened in the cell…when Kale attacked us…" Quatre fidgeted with his sheets as he spoke so Wufei didn't press for many more details.

"And how do I fit into this?"

"Well I've had the dream three different times. The first time I had the dream, I was reliving it." Quatre paused as a shiver crawled up his spine, "The second time that I had it, I was watching what happened in the first dream, like, I could see myself."

"So it was a dream within a dream?"

"Kind of…I don't know really how to explain it…"

"I think I get the drift…did anything else change?"

"Well towards the end of watching the first dream (in the second dream), all the lights went out around me and I was just standing there until I was turned around and there was Axel pointing a gun to my forehead; he shot me and then I woke up."

"That's why you were grabbing at your forehead before…" Wufei seemed intrigued by the situation and urged Quatre to go on. "So the third time?"

"This past time, it started out exactly like the second one except that when I was jerked around, you were standing there instead of Axel but you didn't have a gun and you obviously didn't try to shoot me, and then I woke up." Wufei raised an eyebrow at this.

"I was kind of hoping that you were going to say that I kicked Axel's ass…but do you have any idea why it was me?" Quatre furrowed his brow and tilted his head to the side as he figured one conclusion.

"My empathy…it probably just subconsciously picked up on your presence in the room and placed you in the dream." Wufei nodded and put his hand on Quatre's knee as he thought of another conclusion to which Quatre was listening intently.

"Quatre…I think I know what this is really about and why it's making you so sick." Wufei paused as he formed the correct words before looking straight into Quatre's eyes. "You're never going to get over killing Kale unless you talk to someone about it and until you do, you're going to just keep making yourself even sicker." Quatre put a hand to his forehead, as he knew that Wufei was correct. It didn't take a genius to figure that the reason Quatre was having these dreams was because of his guilt over killing someone as well as his internal stress of keeping it to himself.

"No offense Fei…but if I'm going to talk to anyone about this, it has to be Duo." Wufei sighed somewhat to himself at the thought of trying to find Duo but nodded his compliance to Quatre's request.

(---)

So Wufei went on the search for their braided friend. He first looked in the pilot's disaster area room but found no sign of Duo there. He then moved to the gym just in case he was working out his stress but when he didn't find him there, Wufei was struck with an epiphany. 'Why didn't I think of that in the first place?' Wufei mumbled to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. There he finally found Duo sitting with his head laying on the kitchen table and looking out the window sullenly. Wufei noticed that Duo had made a sandwich for himself but had surprisingly only taken one bite out of it before pushing it away from him. Wufei strode over to the table and sat down across from his friend.

"Maxwell." Duo pitifully looked up at the Chinese pilot but did not receive any sympathy. "Quatre's awake; he wants to talk to you."

At this, Duo put his head back down and spoke, his voice muffled by his sleeve, "Tell him that I can't talk right now."

"No." Duo furrowed his brow and dared a glance back at Wufei who only spoke back with the intensity of his dark eyes.

"What do you want me to do Fei? I just can't bear to watch him like this…"

"Well, your feelings aren't exactly important right now so get over them." Duo glared at this.

"How dare…" Wufei interrupted immediately after Duo even took a breath to respond.

"How dare I? How dare you! Yes, I know, you both just went through a horrible situation and in no way does anyone want to downplay your role in that at all but Quatre, the man you love, is going through something big right now." Wufei took a deep breath and lowered his voice as he realized that he had actually been shouting. "Not only did Quatre have to watch and feel you suffering but he also suffered and then killed a man. And if he can't talk to someone about it then he will only get worse but now he's ready to talk…to you."

Duo raised a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. Slowly tears streamed down his cheeks as the pilot broke down. Sighing, Wufei reached an arm across the table and clutched one of Duo's hands.

"Look at yourself Duo," Duo looked up at Wufei as he unexpectedly called him by his first name. "You can't stand being without him. You're sitting in the kitchen all by yourself and you're _not_ eating; is that even possible? I know that you think that you need space but he needs you right now. He's finally ready to talk and if you don't get in there, he might not want to later."

Wiping his face clean, Duo took a deep breath and nodded to Wufei before getting up from his seat and turning to walk away. He paused for a moment and turned back to his friend. Wufei looked up to Duo's kind face and watched Duo's smile grow as his hand secretly slipped over to grab the sandwich that was still on the table.

"What can I say…I'm starving." Wufei rolled his eyes before using his foot to shove Duo in the right direction.

"Eat on your way!"

(---)

Not too far away, a figure stumbled into a dark alleyway as the rain poured down soaking their entire person. There they ran seeking any shelter but finding nothing more than a dumpster and a pay phone. Glancing towards the pay phone, only one detail caught their eye; the phone book attached. In a mad rush, the figure ran to the phone and grabbed the phone book flipping through its numerous pages furiously. They searched and searched until they found one solitary name.

Winner.

End.

(---)

Well? I know I know, another cliffhanger AND you still don't know how Quatre opened up a can of whoop-ass on Kale but don't worry, I'll get there soon enough.

Please Review!!!! I love all you readers that do review and I hope more of you feel inspired to as well!!! Thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Author Note PLEASE READ: Okay, so I apologize right now for the utter shortness of this chapter but I do have some reasoning behind it. I know that this chapter has kind of been anticipated for a while so I was anxious to get it up. Also, I think that the next chapter is going to be the last and I didn't want to just end it with this chapter and not warn you guys. And, I have finals coming up so I might be scarce on the writing scene so I wanted this to at least keep people entertained.

I hope that everyone enjoys!

Chapter 9

Duo gently pushed the door to Quatre's room open as he shoved the last portion of his sandwich into his mouth and slowly made his way into the quiet room. As he approached Quatre's bed, he noticed that the small blonde had slipped into a nap and couldn't help the smile that crept to his face. Silently, he moved to the opposite side of the bed and very carefully got under the covers. Careful not to shake too much, the braided pilot slowly lowered his body down onto the bed and lay down next to Quatre. Duo stared long and hard at his love's sleeping face as he thought to himself.

'How could I have ever stayed away from that beautiful face? How could I have ever left his side?' Duo began to gently stroke Quatre's pale cheek as tears welled up behind his eyes. "Oh Quatre…" Duo whispered to his sleeping love and took a moment to wipe away the few tears that had fallen. Just as he was about to move away so that Quatre could sleep, the blonde stirred and opened his eyes groggily. Quatre, upon looking around, immediately smiled softly at the sight of his Duo.

"Hey Duo, I was just resting my eyes." Duo's smile widened as the blonde spoke in the cutest voice he had ever heard and then yawned. Duo couldn't help but snuggle him and felt as Quatre leaned into his embrace.

"Babe, you can go back to sleep if you want to."

"No, no. You're here now so I want to stay awake." Quatre looked up to Duo to give him a big smile to show that he was awake but he stopped as he saw Duo's sad eyes. "Duo, what's wrong? You've been crying?" Duo quickly smiled big and leaned in so his nose was touching Quatre's nose.

"Don't think anything of it. It's nothing. Really." Duo waited until Quatre gave him a quick nod before leaning in for a tender kiss. After a nice long moment, they parted and Duo spoke again, "I'm just worried about you my love. Fei told me that you wanted to talk to me."

Quatre released a long sigh and looked away from Duo, his eyes closed in angst.

"Quatre, we can talk later if you're not ready yet, I'll stay here and wait…"

"No, I need to get it out. I need to just say it now. I just…" Duo looked down at Quatre and could see that he was struggling with a mental battle. The blonde furrowed his brow and Duo couldn't help but lean in and kiss his forehead.

"I'm here for you Quatre. I love you." Quatre smiled as he felt Duo's warmth in his heart and, with a deep breath, finally felt that he had the strength to tell Duo what had happened.

"I keep having this dream about the last day that we were captives…about what happened when Kale came into the cell that day and what he did to you…" Quatre paused at the sight of Duo's clenched fist and furrowed brow. Sympathetically, Quatre placed his hand over Duo's and kept a firm grip. Duo's facial features softened as he momentarily closed his eyes and gripped Quatre's hand in return. Once he had regained his cool, Duo nodded to his love to continue.

"…But mostly the dream is about what he tried to do to me and why he left in a body bag because of it." It was Quatre's turn to squeeze Duo's hand as he worked up the strength to talk about it.

"What happened Quatre?" Duo not only held Quatre's shaking hand; he wrapped his other arm around the blonde's shoulders and pulled him over to rest his head on his chest.

"Oh Duo…you were unconscious. All I remember really is that my shoulder was killing me and you were not moving." A tear ran down Quatre's cheek slowly, "Kale climbed on top of me…I couldn't move, he started to undo the buttons on my shirt and telling me that I deserved what was coming to me but I could barely hear him. I had completely blanked out everything the second you fell to the floor for the last time. Kale's hands shifted lower and suddenly it all clicked back and I realized what was going on. I started to struggle but Kale was just too strong so he pinned me down harder."

Quatre raised a hand to his chest and had to stop speaking to take a few deep breaths and regain his composure. Duo waited patiently for his love to continue and rubbed his hand along Quatre's back soothingly. Quatre's voice grew darker as he spoke again.

Flashback

Kale held Quatre down on the ground by his arms pressing heavily down upon him. With a smirk on his face, Kale leaned in and got one inch away from Quatre's pained face.

"You're mine now."

Quatre's eyes grew cold as he glared up at the man. With a sudden bolt of agility, Quatre slipped one of his legs free and kicked Kale off him. After rising to his feet, Quatre looked down to Kale who was holding his stomach in pain.

"You'll never have me."

Lifting himself from the ground, Kale glared back at Quatre and smiled. "Oh, I've already got you. I had you the moment that I kicked your little friend's ass!" Before Kale even finished his sentence, Quatre was running at him but it seemed in vain as Kale easily flipped the odds and had the blonde pinned against the wall. Quatre cried out in pain as Kale put more pressure on his dislocated shoulder and bruises already began to form around his collarbone. Gritting his teeth, Quatre tried to push the man away.

"Just give up you worthless little shit!"

All of a sudden, Quatre's eyes grew dark and he could feel no pain. He looked Kale dead in the eye as he used Kale's arms as leverage to lift himself and kick the man square in the chin. As Kale backed away in pain, Quatre slipped to the ground and threw his leg out to trip him. Falling hard, Kale let out a grunt and looked up at the blonde standing above him; Quatre's emotionless eyes pierced through Kale's and fear flew through his body. Carefully, Quatre stepped over Kale's body before harshly lifting him from the ground by the collar of his shirt and bringing him within an inch of his own face. Quatre smiled maniacally before leaning in even closer.

"You're mine now." Quatre whispered as Kale's eyes grew in fear and without hesitation, Quatre grabbed Kale by his arm and swung him head first into the nearby wall. Kale's arm instantly broke and blood spilled over his face from the several open wounds on his head. Falling to the floor, the older man cradled his arm against his chest and looked up at Quatre fearfully.

Quatre stood before Kale looking down at his bloodied hands with no emotion. He looked back over to Kale and took a deep breath before walking to him again. Kale cowered beneath him and flinched away as Quatre grabbed him by the collar of his shirt once again. Slowly, Quatre dragged the man to the back of the cell and then, kneeling on the ground, got in his face again.

"For all of the pain that you have caused me, you deserve more than what I have done to you but even so, you are going to die. You are going to bleed to death and knowing that will allow me to die here in peace." With that, Quatre shoved Kale to the ground and turned away to stand once more. Quatre's eyes scanned the front part of the cell and eventually fell upon his fallen comrade. Tears threatened to fall to Quatre's dirtied cheek but instead the blonde turned back to Kale; his eyes immediately grew cold as he glared again at the worthless man before him. Closing his eyes completely, Quatre took deep breaths but couldn't contain the rage that he felt inside him. Kale looked up for the last time as Quatre swung his leg back and kicked his face and knocked him unconscious.

Quatre turned away from Kale once more and very slowly walked to the other side of the cell. He didn't dare glance over at Duo's body for the fear that he would break down into tears. Trying to stay strong, Quatre looked straight ahead and contained his broken heart within him. Finally reaching the far wall, Quatre slid down the side until he collapsed on the floor. He tucked his wounded arm in between his chest and his legs as he drew his knees to his face and sat lifelessly, waiting.

End Flashback

"I just lost it Duo…I was so scared without you!"

Holding him close, Duo allowed Quatre to weep into him as tears of his own fell from his eyes. He couldn't believe that Quatre had kept that within him for all this time; no wonder he bad been so sick. Duo tightened his grip around his love determined to never let anything like that ever happen again.

(--------)

A few hours later, the door to Quatre's room slowly opened and Heero stepped softly into the room. He walked over to the bed and looked down to find Quatre sleeping soundly in Duo's arms but Duo was still awake. Duo looked up at Heero with his eyes barely open. Heero only stared back at him stoically.

"How is he?" Duo diverted his eyes back to Quatre's head resting on his chest.

"He's okay…not perfect but he'll be much better after he sleeps some more." Heero nodded to Duo before sitting down in the armchair next to the bed.

"You should get some sleep too, you're exhausted." Duo drowsily looked back to Heero and was about to speak but was stopped by Heero.

"Don't worry, I'll sit here and keep my eyes open for you." Duo furrowed his brow for a moment before shaking his head and smiling a thank you to his all-knowing friend. Taking a deep breath, Duo laid his head back and was finally able to close his eyes; he would sleep well knowing that his Quatre was still being watched over.

End

* * *

Well, that's how it happened. Hope that all made good enough sense to everyone.

Please Review! Your reviews really help to boost my confidence because I really don't consider my writing to be as good as it should be.

Like I said in the beginning, the next chapter will probably be the last and it'll be longer than this one so be forewarned.

Thank you for reading!!!!!!!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I just, as we all do on FFN, put them in awkward scenes and manipulate their lives.

Author Note: Well everyone, this is the last chapter for this story and by far the longest chapter I've ever written. I spent a lot of time on it so I hope that it's good enough. **I would like to thank everyone who read this story and everyone who reviewed, thank you so much!!!!** Your reviews and comments kept be going and motivated to write more so thank you again and I hope that you enjoy the last chapter of Kidnapped!!

Warnings: Some harsh language, guns and definite sexual comments/actions between boys. Also, they smile a lot so I'm sorry for my overuse of the words 'smile,' 'smirk,' 'grin' and other words to that affect.

* * *

Chapter 10 – The Last Chapter

"Quatre Raberba Winner, you are not getting out of this bed!" Duo's concerned voice rang throughout the mansion as he loomed over the little blonde protectively. It had been three days since Quatre had finally confessed what had been bothering him to Duo and ever since, Duo had been hovering over him to no end. Quatre blinked up at his boyfriend and sighed heavily. He greatly appreciated the fact that his beloved cared so much but he desperately needed to move his limbs. The only time he had even moved at all was when Duo was able to…convince him with other reasons to not get out of bed. This time around though, Quatre would not give up until he got his way.

"Duo…babe…I have been lying in this bed for well over a week now and I feel ten times better than I have since I can remember so can I please just have some time to at least go shower…something!" Duo still looked skeptical; he didn't want to make Quatre unhappy but at the same time, he didn't want his angel to strain himself. Standing off to the side, Wufei rolled his eyes. He had been there keeping the two company until Quatre had made his request; now he just watched as the two quarreled like an old couple. Sighing himself, Duo spoke again.

"Quatre, I will give you a sponge bath and you'll be clean and I can get you anything that you want from the kitchen or the library or whatever." Quatre rubbed his forehead for a moment before looking back at Duo.

"Duo, as much as love your sponge baths, I am getting out of this bed and you are not going to stop me." Duo snorted at this but Quatre just looked up at him completely resolute.

"Oh yeah? And how do you figure that?"

"Well, I figure that because I am not afraid to use what physical force I have gathered up against you but you can't really fight me back without disturbing any of my remaining injuries so unless you plan on that, I _will_ be walking around my house today." Quatre looked to Duo with a smug grin on his face and Wufei chuckled from where he stood.

"He does have a point Maxwell, might as well let him do it."

Duo's jaw dropped as Quatre slowly pushed him aside and slid off the side of the bed. Planting a quick kiss on Duo's cheek, Quatre smiled to himself as his feet touched the ground for the first time since he had his incident in the bathroom. Putting his body weight back onto his feet made him a little wobbly but he eventually got used to it and slowly began making his way towards the kitchen. When Quatre got about halfway to the door, he halted in his movements as he felt an arm tenderly wrap around his waist. Looking to his left, Quatre saw Duo's smiling face and couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Fine, you win but I'm coming with you." Quatre chuckled a little at his angel's comment and wrapped his arm around him before they continued walking forward. As the two grew closer to the kitchen, they could hear someone rattling around and could smell something cooking on the stove. Duo sniffed the air as his stomach growled at him; Quatre chuckled lightly at this and Duo grinned at him embarrassed. When they reached the kitchen doorway, they found that Trowa was preparing some deliciously smelling soup. When he heard shuffling of feet behind him, the green-eyed pilot turned and smiled genuinely at the two.

"Well, well, look who's out of bed. I was just about to bring some of this soup in for you both but I guess now we shall all dine here." Trowa kept smiling as Duo led Quatre over to the kitchen table. Despite his eagerness to continue walking, Quatre hadn't realized that it would wear him out this easily and felt he had to sit down. Quatre took a short moment to collect himself again before laughing a little and speaking.

"Yeah, I finally convinced my protector over here to let me get out of bed and stretch my legs." Duo rolled his eyes and leaned down to kiss Quatre on the forehead.

"Whatever, if I recall correctly, you're legs were working just fine last night in bed." Just then, Wufei had walked into the kitchen to join them and he cringed slightly.

"Oh my god, could we PLEASE not talk about what you all did in bed last night!" The other three pilots laughed as Wufei shook the thought from his mind. "I would take a bullet for any of you just please do not tell me about your sexual occurrences." Wufei sat down at the table next to Quatre as the laughter continued. Heero also joined the four of them and, sitting down at the table as well, asked what was so funny. As Trowa began distributing soup to everyone's bowls at the table, Duo answered Heero.

"We were just telling Fei here the intimate details of the inside of Quatre's bed sheets." Heero raised an eyebrow at a grinning Duo after swallowing a mouthful of soup.

"You mean how you and Quatre did it last night?" Duo almost choked at how bluntly Heero had just phrased it; although, he should've known that Heero would lack any sort of emotion about it.

"How did you know?" Heero nodded thanks for Trowa for the soup he had given him and turned back to Duo to respond.

"I came into the room last night to check on you guys thinking that you were still asleep. Boy was I wrong." Wufei and Trowa couldn't help but laugh as Duo and Quatre both turned bright red at Heero's comment. Quatre immediately began to apologize.

"Oh Allah, how rude. I'm so sorry Heero." Heero let out a laugh and waved a hand at the blonde who continued to grow more red in the face.

"Don't worry so much Quatre; it's not a big deal. It's not like any of us care about you two being a couple." Wufei also commented on this.

"Yeah, we're just glad you finally came together. I mean even I could tell that you two were in love." Blushing again, Quatre smiled and looked over to his boyfriend. Duo smiled back at him and slurped his soup.

(---------)

After their soup brunch in the kitchen, the five pilots decided to lounge for a while in the sitting room and chat about all the things that Quatre and Duo had missed while they had been kidnapped and while they were in bed all this time, which wasn't much but still something to talk about. Quatre had mostly just listened instead of contributing anything because overall he just felt weak. He was so tired that he was about to fall asleep curled up in Duo's lap on the couch. Looking down, Duo immediately saw this and spoke up.

"I knew that you walking around too much would leave you like this." Quatre blinked up at him sleepily but despite his drowsy appearance, he still had his quick wit.

"Whatever, you like it. You like me falling to sleep in your lap." Duo smiled down at his blonde bundle and began to stand.

"Alright, you're completely right. Why don't we go have a nice nap? Does that sound good?" Duo looked to the other three apologetically for ruining the conversation but they only smiled kindly back.

"Yeah, that sounds amazing but put me down. I'm gonna walk myself." Abiding reluctantly, Duo gently placed Quatre's feet on the floor and followed closely as the blonde pilot began to make his way. Not wanting to tackle the stairs for now, Quatre settled on sleeping back in the bed he'd been recovering in; besides, a bed with Duo in it as well was a good bed to him. Seeing that Quatre was doing all right for himself, Duo stopped long enough to look back to the pilots and apologize.

"No worries Duo. It's not like we can't talk about this at any time." Trowa smiled to the braided pilot. Heero slowly moved to stand.

"Yeah, I've got to go too. I've still got some paperwork to do." Heero gave a short wave before trudging back to his office. Wufei looked to Trowa who shrugged and looked back to Duo.

"Do you know what paperwork he means?" Trowa spoke suspiciously and Duo raised an eyebrow.

"It's Heero, who knows what the hell runs through his mind…I think he does paperwork on everything now." Duo shrugged and looked back down the hall to see that Quatre had already reached the bed. "Alright, well, gonna go nap now." Duo swiftly walked back into the room he and Quatre were sleeping in and helped Quatre climb into the huge bed. The braided boy then moved back across the room to turn out the lights and pull the drapes closed at all of the windows to block any light. He then returned to the bedside and slid in next to his love.

Once they were both settled, Quatre turned to Duo and smiled as big as he possibly could in his sleepy stupor. Duo smiled back and pecked his boyfriend on the nose. Quatre turned back around and snuggled his head into his pillow as he yawned and felt Duo's arms gently wrap around him from behind. Quatre smiled at the fact of he and Duo's 'spooning' and then went on to think about the abnormality of the term spooning. As his mind wandered, Quatre's eyelids grew heavier. Duo, who was already asleep, shifted slightly causing Quatre's eyes to open once more; however, that couldn't stop them from drooping yet again.

Moments later, as Quatre was seconds away from being asleep, his eyes flew open. He'd just felt a minor but intense pain in his chest but it had seemed very familiar and dangerous to him. Trying to ignore it, Quatre closed his eyes again but when another stronger pain suddenly struck his space heart, Quatre shot straight up in bed gasping. His hand immediately flew to his burning chest as the blonde breathed heavily, his eyes darting around the room. Surprised at the sudden movement, Duo awoke and did not like what he saw. He shot up in bed as well at seeing Quatre's state.

"Quatre, what's wrong? What hurts?" Duo watched as Quatre continued to look all over the room and clutch his shirt even tighter. Placing a hand to Quatre's dripping forehead, Duo could feel a definite spike in his temperature.

"Quatre you have a slight fever, calm down. Let's get you some rest." Duo tried to pull the blonde teen back to the sheets but Quatre pulled away from Duo's grasp.

"No, Duo…I don't feel safe…someone is here…something is wrong." Duo furrowed his brow at Quatre's actions and looked around the room himself.

"Babe, no one is here and even if they were I am here to protect you. Don't worry." Duo, placing a hand on Quatre's cheek, gently pulled Quatre to face him before giving him a reassuring kiss. Trying to calm himself, Quatre looked into Duo's comforting eyes, nodded and agreed to lay back down with Duo. Facing the braided pilot this time, Quatre curled into his warm embrace and tried his best to convince himself that it was just his fever playing tricks on him. Duo kept a watchful eye open until Quatre was seemingly calm and asleep before closing his own eyes for some shuteye.

Yet lurking in the corner, a figure stood watching the two sleeping. He grinned to himself and leaned against the window he had just silently and easily broken into. All he had to do now was wait.

(---------)

Trowa flipped another page in his book and read the last few paragraphs of the chapter before placing his bookmark between the pages. Setting the book on the coffee table, the former pilot leaned back on the couch with his hands behind his head; he must've been reading for hours. Duo and Quatre were still sleeping, Heero was still working on something and Wufei had left to meditate not too long after everyone else left. Trowa himself started drifting asleep until he heard the patio door slide open and Wufei's footsteps following it. Trowa sat up once again and looked to Wufei as he slid the door closed and began walking towards the sitting area.

"Everyone else still busy?" Trowa nodded to Wufei's question and watched as he sat down lazily in the armchair across from him.

"How was meditating?"

"Pretty good, how is your book?" Wufei motioned to the abandoned book on the table and Trowa shrugged.

"I wasn't really paying attention to be honest." Wufei arched an eyebrow.

"Got a lot on your mind?" Trowa chuckled somewhat.

"I usually do. I'm beginning to believe that I think too much." Trowa smiled to Wufei who only nodded knowingly back at him. Looking to his watch, Wufei raised his eye brows and began to stand.

"I didn't realize how close to dinnertime it was. Duo and Quatre should really wake up soon if they want to sleep at all during the night." Trowa, who had also looked at his watch, nodded in agreement.

"I'll go wake them and you start prepping for dinner." Wufei nodded back and turned around to enter the kitchen while Trowa headed for Duo and Quatre's room. Tapping lightly on the door, Trowa listened for any noise before quietly entering the room. Navigating through the darkness, Trowa crept towards the bed and squinted at his two friends. Just as Trowa was about to tap someone on the shoulder, Duo blinked his eyes open to look up at him. Trowa smiled shyly before whispering.

"We're gonna start making dinner soon so you guys should get up." Quatre let out a small whine as he heard and Duo chuckled at him before looking to Trowa and nodding.

"I got it from here. Thanks." Trowa smirked at his friend and departed from the room. Duo looked down at his lover and leaned down to press his nose to Quatre's temple, "Hon, we gotta get up now." Quatre only squeezed his eyes closed tighter.

"Noooo…don't wanna…" Quatre snuggled deeper into Duo's chest trying to escape but Duo only grinned at his attempt. Remembering the events at the beginning of their nap, Duo gently placed his hand to Quatre's forehead and sighed in relief at his lack of temperature.

"Looks like your fever broke babe. You probably just overworked yourself getting out of bed earlier." Duo leaned down to kiss Quatre's forehead and the blonde opened one of his eyes and pouted.

"Don't wanna go." Quatre immediately pulled away from Duo's chest and yanked the sheet over his head to which Duo just smirked. Thinking for a moment, Duo's brain sparked an idea.

"So, you won't get out of bed huh…" Duo watched as Quatre shook his head under the sheet, "but can you be bribed is the question." Watching carefully, Duo saw the sheet slowly reveal more and more of Quatre until he could see those beautiful and currently curious aquamarine eyes.

"Maybe…what's the bribe?" Duo's smile grew as his hand wandered to Quatre's stomach. Quatre raised an eyebrow to him but before he could react, Duo began to tickle him with no mercy. Quatre was caught in a fit of laughter as Duo's hands spanned his most ticklish places.

"Mercy! Mercy! I'll go!" Quatre cried out through his laughter until Duo finally stopped. Smiling at his victory, Duo jumped out of the bed and walked to the other side offering Quatre his hand but Quatre only sat up and pouted in return. Duo's smile faded as he saw his love was unhappy.

"That wasn't a bribe…that was a trick…" Quatre pouted more and spoke in a soft childlike voice. Duo melted immediately and gave in.

"Alright, alright. Here you go." Gradually, Duo leaned close to Quatre and pulled him in for a gentle kiss. As it became clear that Quatre was immersed within the kiss, Duo slowly began backing away forcing Quatre to move with him until he was leaned so far off the bed he had to either stand to catch up or fall off. Opting to stand and be with Duo some more, Quatre wrapped his arms around Duo's waist and looked him in the eye.

"You know, that was a trick too but I guess I'll let it slide this time because you're such an amazing kisser." Duo smiled and pecked him again before he wrapped his arms around Quatre's back. Holding him tightly and swaying a little, Duo whispered into Quatre's ear.

"I love you Quatre." Quatre leaned his head on Duo's shoulder and gave Duo's neck a brief kiss.

"I love you too Duo." The two held the embrace for a moment before Duo's stomach rumbling interrupted.

"Come on; let's go help them make food. I'm starving." Quatre would've come back with something like 'when aren't you' but he was still feeling drowsy and uneasy.

"You go on ahead. I think that I'm going to just take a quick shower first." Duo gave Quatre the 'are you sure' look to which the blonde responded with a quick nod and one last peck on the cheek. Duo slowly walked away as he watched Quatre grab some new clothes and tread over to the bathroom. Once his love was safely in the bathroom, Duo actually noticed how dark the room was and as he walked out of the room, he flipped the light switch and closed the door behind him.

Unable to wipe the smile from his face, Duo sauntered down the short hallway and headed straight for the kitchen. When he arrived, he found Wufei and Trowa hard at work surrounded by ingredients and different sauces. Eyeing all the food sitting out, Duo stealthily snuck behind Wufei to steal a black olive but before he could grab one, Wufei slapped his hand with the wooden spoon he was holding.

"Just in time Maxwell, we actually need your help." Nursing his fingers, Duo perked up and moved to face the two chefs.

"Oh? What with?" Trowa smiled at his obvious excitement and pointed to the array of food.

"We thought we'd be fun and make a pizza but we're not sure what toppings to put on it so we need some help."

Duo's eyes lit up with joy as he spoke, "Well, my services do require a certain fee…" Wufei raised an eyebrow at this.

"You don't get enough from Quatre?" Shooting Wufei a look, Duo rolled his eyes at him. The three took a moment to laugh before Trowa spoke up again.

"Yes Duo, you can taste all of the toppings before you decide." Smiling once again, Duo dove right in popping peppers and olives and different cheeses into his mouth. Wufei and Trowa would hear the occasional, 'definitely that!' or 'ew, too healthy' until it was finally narrowed down to only a handful. Satisfied with his decisions, Duo grinned again and moved out of the way to lean against the opposite counter in the kitchen. Popping one last item of food into his mouth, Duo chuckled to himself for a moment and it wasn't unnoticed.

"What?" Trowa, who was rolling out the dough for the pizza, looked over his shoulder at Duo who again chuckled before Wufei approached him with a spoon of sauce to try. Duo shot Wufei thumbs up before speaking.

"I was just thinking about me and Quatre's nap…I mean, how many times did you come in to try and wake us up?" Trowa, after also trying the sauce Wufei had made and nodding in approval, turned to Duo and furrowed his brow.

"What do you mean?"

Duo looked back at Trowa confused, "Well, I woke up a few different times and saw you were standing over us until I finally completely opened my eyes to show you that I was awake." If possible, Trowa looked even more confused. Wufei even stopped working at this comment to listen in.

"Duo, I only came in there once. Granted, I was standing there for a short while but I was only in the room on one occasion and everyone else was busy in other places." Duo crossed his arms on his chest.

"Are you sure? I could've sworn…"

Before the conversation could continue, the sound of the phone ringing echoed throughout the mansion. Groaning a little, Duo pushed himself away from the counter and started walking towards the phone at the other end of the sitting room. Trowa and Wufei went back to spreading Wufei's sauce on the prepped pizza dough still perplexed at what Duo was suggesting. Before Duo could get even halfway to the phone, Heero appeared from around the corner and put his hand up to stop Duo.

"I'll get it." Duo waved thanks and started making his way back to the kitchen as Heero picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Where is Quatre? You need to warn him! The mansion was ransacked but they got your address! You need to find him!" Heero furrowed his brow at the frantic voice on the other line.

"Hold on a second, slow down. What's going on? Who is this?" The three pilots in the kitchen looked over to Heero hearing the concern in his voice.

"There's no time! You need to find Quatre NOW!" Sighing heavily, Heero, without removing the phone from his ear, put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and looked to Duo.

"Where's Quatre?" Duo took a moment to think before replying but the voice on the other line wouldn't wait for his response and screamed into Heero's ear.

"AXEL IS THERE TO KILL HIM!"

"Quatre's showering, but he should be out by now. I can go…Heero?" Duo stopped abruptly as he watched Heero throw down the phone and immediately run towards he and Quatre's room. Duo turned to the others briefly with a baffled look before all three moved to follow Heero.

(---------)

Moments earlier in Quatre and Duo's bathroom, Quatre was just pulling on his shirt as he looked at himself in the mirror. Quatre smiled at his put-together appearance and moved to open the bathroom door; he felt reasonably refreshed for the first time quite a while. As he walked out of the steam-filled bathroom and toward the opposite wall, Quatre suddenly began to feel more uneasy with every step. The blonde tried to pinpoint the source of the feeling but suddenly he became overwhelmed and had to stop walking completely, leaning against the small table next to the sitting chair. Putting one hand to his chest and one on the table, Quatre squinted his eyes in pain and his balance swayed some. Suddenly, Quatre's eyes flew open in fear; he recognized this feeling. Confirming his fears, the blonde heard a noise behind him and he spun around to find Axel standing within ten feet of him, gun in his hand; Quatre's grip on his chest grew tighter.

"Now now Quatre, we've been through this once before. Don't you dare scream." Axel smiled maliciously at the teen in front of him and watched him squirm in delight. It was clear that the man hadn't had a fresh shower or laundry visit in days as his clothes were all torn and muddy. His hair was obviously dirty and his hands and arms definitely needed a good scrub but what caught Quatre's attention the most was the crazed look in his eyes; the blonde inwardly cringed at the emotion emanating from Axel. Quatre glared at the man and tried to clear his head.

"What do you want from me Axel?" Quatre's voice shook with fear and he silently cursed himself for that. Axel responded with an intense glare.

"What do I want from you? You really don't already know. It's pretty fucking obvious Quatre!" Quatre couldn't help but flinch at the older man's yelling but he didn't take his eyes away from him. At this point, Axel was pacing and tapping the gun against his forehead, muttering things to himself under his breath. Unable to hear what he was saying, Quatre only stood in his place incapable of identifying even his own emotions. Quatre both feared and hated this man for the things he had done but above all, when he looked at him, Quatre could only think of what he had done to Kale and how he somehow deserved this fate dealt by Axel's gun. In the background, Quatre heard the phone begin to ring but focused on the situation at hand. The man finally stopped pacing and turned back to Quatre seemingly calmer. Taking a deep breath, Axel took a few steps forward and spoke again.

"You killed my best friend Quatre. You killed him in cold blood and you didn't even care!" Quatre shivered at the absolute disgust laced in every word Axel spoke and once again noticed the demented look in his eye as he spoke again. "Now it seems that I should return the favor and kill someone close to you…like that Duo kid you seemed pretty snuggled up with during your nap…" Axel paused to notice the utter fear in Quatre's eyes before continuing. "…and seeing as how your father wasn't home last night when I ransacked his place and the only blood I _really_ want to shed is that of a Winner, I guess you're my best bet."

Quatre knew that he should be moving; he knew that he should do something, anything, but he couldn't. Be it from the fear of dying young, the paralyzing pain in his chest or the partial remorse for the crime he had in fact committed against this man, Quatre stood in front of Axel unsure of what to do and little time to decide. For the first time, Axel smiled genuinely at Quatre and spoke.

"So here's to you Quatre Winner and I hope to see you in hell." Axel raised his gun to Quatre's chest and smirked.

Mere seconds later, a shot rang out.

(-------)

Walking through to the other side of the kitchen, the three other pilots were following Heero towards the room. When they had reached a point where they could see the door to the room, Heero dashed into it. They continued walking towards it until they suddenly heard a single gunshot followed by Heero yelling Quatre's name. Without a word, the three were jogging down the hallway.

(--------)

"Quatre!"

Quatre's eyes grew wide and his breathing became labored suddenly. Unable to stand any longer, Quatre crumpled to the floor and miserably looked up at Axel. The man smiled maliciously down at the pilot and lowered his arm before falling himself. Quatre flinched in pain as beads of sweat ran down his forehead. The blonde glanced behind him and found Heero looking at him worriedly before he nodded and looked back to Axel who was clutching the shot wound in his chest. Axel looked to Quatre agonizingly as blood streamed out of the corner of his mouth. His voice was barely above a whisper, but Quatre heard him clearly.

"You're friends can't bail you out every time. You _will_ die boy." His hand trembling, Axel lifted his gun again and aimed it at Quatre determined to hit the mark this time. Seeing that his friend was caught in the moment, with his gun still poised to fire again if need be, Heero yelled forcefully to grab his attention.

"QUATRE!"

Snapping back to reality and ignoring the pain from his space heart, Quatre rolled over and shot up from the floor. Quatre kept on running even as Heero shot Axel again and a tidal wave hit his empathy. Quatre ran past Heero and into the hallway frantically before colliding with another body at full speed and sending them both to the floor. Without even looking, Quatre immediately returned to his feet running again. Not long after, he hit another body but this time, they actually saw it coming and didn't budge so Quatre clung to them crying out and beating on their chest. Slowly, Quatre began to slide to the floor still against them, tears flowing freely down his face.

Trowa kept a tight hold on Quatre as they slid to the floor and tried his best to calm the blonde down. Off to Trowa's right side, Duo also slid to the floor staring at Quatre in horror and looking up and down his body for any wounds. Looking up from Trowa's chest, Quatre made eye contact with Duo and jumped into his arms crying more.

"Duo! It's Axel! He's here to kill me; I didn't know what to do. I couldn't move I was so scared." Duo wrapped his arms lovingly around his boyfriend and soothed him until the blonde seemed to be calmer. Duo looked in front of him as Trowa knelt next to Wufei who was only winded but still resting on the floor where he and Quatre had collided. Taking a deep breath, Duo pulled away from Quatre and looked into his eyes.

"Don't worry Quatre. You stay here with Trowa and I'm going to see what's going on. I'll be right back, I promise." Quatre looked to Duo with sadness in his eyes but knowing that there was no changing Duo's mind, he nodded and watched as Duo stood.

After seeing that Quatre was in safe hands with Trowa and kneeling down to check on the extremely winded Wufei, Duo ran into he and Quatre's temporary room immediately glaring at the man lying in the middle of the floor. Axel let out a laugh at seeing Duo glaring at him and Duo only glared more. He observed that Axel, while wounded with two bullets one in his lower chest and the other in his arm, he was still quite alive. In a momentary lapse of judgment, Duo was tempted to grab Heero's gun and lay five more bullets into Axel's body but he stopped himself and spoke to Heero instead.

"Why is he still alive?" Heero looked to Duo and saw the pure hatred that dwelled within his eyes. Heero sighed at him.

"Because as much as I know he deserves a bullet in his head, I think he deserves to rot in a jail cell more." Duo only kept his glare present and Heero shook his head, "Duo, I'm going to call him an ambulance before he bleeds everywhere and you should go take care of Quatre. God knows he needs it and Trowa's looking a little scared." Duo closed his eyes and calmed himself down before nodding to Heero and turning to leave the room. Behind him, he heard Axel cackling.

"You put me in another jail cell; I'll just break out again! I will kill the Winner family if it's the last thing I do!" Axel yelled and then all of the sudden spoke quietly. "…Even if I have to take out each and every one of you first!" With one last burst of adrenaline, Axel grabbed his gun with his good arm and pushed himself to his feet immediately walking towards the retreating Duo. Heero's eyes grew wide and he raised his gun once again.

"Duo, move!" The unsuspecting Duo turned back around to see Axel charging towards him. Quickly, Duo raised his leg to kick the gun out of Axel's hand but not before another two shots were fired, one from each gun.

In the hallway, the three sat only able to see part of what was happening in the room ahead of them. Trowa, still sitting to the side Quatre, watched him carefully. The blonde pilot was sitting with his knees pulled towards his chest and an extremely worried look on his face. Wufei had sat up soon after Duo had left despite still feeling somewhat winded. He was tempted to get up and walk into the room ahead as well but decided against it after seeing the looks of pure fear on both of his companions' faces. Readjusting his sitting position to sit Indian style, Wufei looked over to make sure that Quatre was all right. Quatre, feeling badly about running into Wufei earlier, looked over to him apologetically but before Wufei could reply the three heard the two shots fired and Quatre lurched forward holding his hands over his ears and yelling. Trowa was immediately at Quatre's side asking him what was wrong, but before the two could react, Quatre had pulled away from them and curled into a ball on the floor. Wufei and Trowa, thinking that he was wounded, tried to move him into more of a sitting position but the blonde only curled further into a ball.

Duo glared at Axel as he fell to the floor. With not much time to aim correctly or think before Duo was possibly killed, Heero had decided to get everything over with and Axel now had a bullet in his neck. Blood oozed from the wound but the man still maintained his manic smile. Duo kneeled at his side and frowned mockingly.

"Too bad Axel, you missed, but Heero didn't." Struggling to stay alive, Axel chuckled for the last time and spoke.

"On the contrary…I think I've done quite well…" Duo flinched and raised an eyebrow at the man as he coughed painfully. Before Duo could ask what he meant, Axel's eyes rolled back and he was finally dead. Duo sighed in relief thinking that it was finally over. Heero knelt down beside him, double checking Axel's pulse and looking to his comrade.

"Are you okay?" Duo looked back at Heero and replied.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Glad that asshole is finally dead, maybe now we can all…"

"Quatre's not breathing," Trowa yelled to everyone. Duo's eyes grew wide and he instantly turned, stood and ran to his lover's side. He got down on his knees and flinched again as he looked at Quatre. Trowa had laid him down flat and Duo watched as Trowa pump his hands on Quatre's chest before taking action himself. He leaned down to check Quatre's breathing or lack thereof and took a moment to brush the hair from his eyes.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. He heard the gunshots and started freaking out and we were trying to make sure he wasn't injured but he curled into a ball. Then suddenly his whole body went limp." Wufei spoke in Trowa's place as he was still trying to revive their blonde friend. Duo took a deep breath.

"Let me." Trowa followed Duo's command and could only watch as Duo began performing CPR on Quatre. Shortly after, everyone was relieved to hear Quatre cough and take in a few deep, shaky breaths but while he was breathing, he was also still unconscious. Duo released the breath he had been holding in but flinched again as he leaned forward with his hands on the floor. Sitting on the floor next to Trowa, Wufei glanced at Duo, narrowed his eyes, and looked up to the approaching Heero who was already on the phone with a hospital.

"Heero, have them send two ambulances immediately." Heero shot Wufei a confused look but, deciding that now was not the time to question him, he nodded and followed orders. Taking in what Wufei had just said, Duo thought back to his struggle moments earlier and what Axel had said before he died. Taking a quick look around at everyone else and, finding them to be relatively all right, Duo turned to Wufei confused.

"Why do we need two ambulances? No one got shot, Axel missed." Wufei and Trowa both looked to Duo alarmed at his statement. Wufei raised his eyebrow at the braided boy who only continued to stare back at him bewildered.

"Duo…you did. You're bleeding pretty badly."

"What are you…?" Duo looked at Wufei still confused for a moment before looking down at his left side; instantly, he saw the discoloration of his clothes. He pushed his fingers against himself and flinched in pain. Completely surprised, Duo pulled his hand away to find it was covered in blood. Looking back up at his friends, Duo blinked several times as his delayed pain suddenly flooded through his mind and his vision blurred. The braided pilot began to sway in his place and before he knew it, he had fallen to the floor. Cursing aloud, Wufei moved as quickly as he could over him trying to keep him awake. Faintly, Duo could hear Heero yelling louder over the phone before everything went dark.

(---------------) 1

After taking care of Axel's body and the police and getting themselves checked over for any possible injuries, Heero, Trowa and Wufei, preparing for a long evening ahead, immediately grabbed some coffee and went to linger in the waiting area for Quatre and Duo. All three were glad to find the waiting room empty as they went to their separate sitting spots. Opting to sit on the floor, Wufei leaned against a chair with his head resting in the seat, his legs crossed Indian style and his eyes closed. To Wufei's right, Trowa was sitting with his legs spread out before him slouched down in his chair with his hands behind his head and to their left, Heero sat hunched forward with his elbows resting on his legs and leaning his head on his hands. Without opening his eyes, Wufei broke the silence.

"So who was on the phone and what exactly happened from then on?" Heero looked up and over at Wufei but seeing that he wasn't looking at him just looked forward again and replied.

"I'm not sure who it was exactly; I think someone from Mr. Winner's mansion. He just was completely frantic and impatient, thank god. While I was waiting from Duo to give me an answer, he screamed that Axel was there to kill Quat and that's when I just ran." Heero looked over to the two but still saw no change in their posture and continued anyway.

"When I got into the room, Axel was speaking and Quatre was just standing there. Axel raised his gun to shoot but I beat him to it and shot first. At first, I thought I had made a horrible error because Quatre fell to the ground but then I immediately saw Axel fall as well." At this, naturally, the two had become more intrigued with the story and moved to face Heero as he spoke.

"Quatre looked back at me and he just…he looked completely terrified…" Heero trailed off for a moment remembering the look in Quatre's eyes but he shook his head and continued. "Then I saw Axel raise his gun again and Quatre still didn't move so I yelled his name to get his attention. The second he was off the ground, I shot Axel's arm and his gun fell to the ground and Quatre flew past me and into the hallway." Wufei snorted at this.

"Yeah and straight into me." Heero cocked his head to the side and Trowa decided to elaborate.

"We were just about to the room when Quatre came flying through the doorway. He ran right into Wufei and they fell to the floor so Duo and I put on the brakes."

"Needless to say, I was down for the count for a moment but Quatre just got right back to his feet." Heero chuckled somewhat at Wufei's comment before Trowa continued.

"Well, he ran into me next but I was able to stop him and he just broke down crying and slid to the floor." Heero shook his head sadly but before he could comment further, the door to the waiting room opened and a red-haired nurse walked in. The three teens immediately turned their attention to her as she spoke.

"Are you here for Quatre Winner?" When the three nodded, she continued. "Well, I'm happy to say that he is completely fine and stable and ready for guests if you'd like to see him." The woman smiled warmly at them and stood waiting for a reply. Heero spoke up with the question that was on all of their minds.

"Do you know anything about Duo Maxwell?" Looking down at her charts, the woman's smile faded.

"I'm sorry, no; he must be assigned to a different doctor. I can go and check if you'd like?" Sighing somewhat, Heero nodded.

"Yes that would be great. Thank you very much ma'am." Smiling again, she nodded to all of them and exited the room. Looking back at one another, the three pilots debated their options.

"Well, should we wait for news on Duo before we go?" Heero shook his head at Trowa's question.

"No, no. You two go and see Quatre and I'll stay behind and wait for news on Duo." Heero looked sympathetically over at his two friends who returned the glance.

"Heero, I'm sure that she'll be back soon, we can wait and go together." Wufei and Trowa made it clear that they had no intentions of moving.

Heero would've responded but they were interrupted by the waiting room door opening again. All three looked over expecting to see the nurse back with information but their jaws dropped at who was standing in her place.

"Duo!"

"Hey guys." Duo smiled cheekily at his three friends as he stood before them still in his hospital gown and hooked up to an IV. Heero glared at the boy.

"Are you insane? You're sneaking around in a hospital, you got shot Duo…"

"Actually," the braided boy interrupted, "it just grazed me. I mean, yeah, I passed out and lost a lot of blood and if I don't sit down soon I might faint but I feel just fine and I need to see Quatre." Duo glanced at his three comrades who only stared back at him still shocked. Sighing impatiently, Duo walked closer to them.

"You know that you're not going to change my mind and you also know that I'll go without you so what's Quatre's room number?" Sighing heavily, Wufei stood up and grabbed Duo by his right elbow.

"Duo, we're taking you back to your room. People are probably going crazy worried sick about you. You might not be badly injured but you're still not healthy enough to be walking around like this." Duo rolled his eyes.

"Please, we all know that we all suffered worse then any of this back during the war and then we'd just get into our Gundams and move on with life."

"We were also on the brink of death quite a few times…" Trowa spoke softly but everyone still heard. Silence fell upon the four for a moment before Duo spoke again.

"Look, I appreciate your concern and I realize that we had to just fight through it back then and now we don't but that doesn't disregard the fact that we all did it and we're still alive." Duo paused to look at his friends. "I know the reasons why I should be in bed and here I am anyway. More than anything I want to see Quatre and then I swear I will go back to my bed." Sighing in defeat, Heero and Trowa joined Wufei in standing next to Duo.

"Fine, come on." Everyone followed suit as Wufei led Duo out the door and down the hall to Quatre's room. Dodging any chance of being caught by nurses or doctors, they finally reached the right room and Wufei opened the door, shoving Duo into it first.

Inside his room, Quatre was uneasy. After all that had happened, he didn't like being in a hospital alone, or being alone at all, and worst of all he had no idea what Duo's condition was. All he knew was that Duo was hurt; in fact, it was the reason that he had stopped breathing. Despite the fact that Duo didn't initially feel when he was shot, Quatre could feel it through his empathy and it was so intense that the blonde went into shock and stopped breathing. Thinking back to those moments even made Quatre a little dizzy now, he tried to distract himself until he heard a noise coming from his doorway. Quatre looked over from the television he had been watching and his eyes lit up at seeing his boyfriend; however, soon afterward he furrowed his brow.

"Duo, what're you doing out of your room???" Duo grinned at his lover's concern.

"I snuck out to see you and I brought everyone with me." Unable to stay mad at Duo for very long, Quatre's features softened as he glanced around at everyone. Smiles were returned all around and while Wufei pulled a chair up for Duo to sit in, Trowa walked over and put a hand on Quatre's shoulder.

"How're you feeling?" Quatre raised a hand to place over top of Trowa's and nodded to him.

"I'm fine. The doctors ran tests and concluded that I just went into shock. I know that all of my injuries were emotional so I'm hoping to get out of here soon." Quatre glanced over to Heero and spoke again. "If it weren't for Heero, I'd probably be dead." Heero smiled to the blonde. "How did you even know what was happening?"

"We got a phone call from someone at your father's mansion, I believe, and the second he even said the name Axel, I ran. I'm just glad that I got there in time."

"We all are." Quatre looked to Wufei who smiled down at him as well. "We're glad that the both of you are safe, no matter how annoying Maxwell is."

"Hey!"

The pilots all laughed for a moment before becoming serious again.

"But really, we don't know what we'd do without you two around to keep us on our feet." Duo and Quatre smiled at each other and then turned to their three friends who smiled back. They had all come a long way since the days of the war, which was definitely exemplified by the mere fact that they were all actually genuinely smiling. Heero finally broke the cheery silence.

"Well, I guess we should let Quatre rest up so he can hopefully check out of here soon. And you Duo, you need to be getting back to your room. Some nurse is probably worried sick about where you've disappeared to." Heero raised an eyebrow at him but Duo simply waved off his comment.

"It'll be fine. I'll go back to my bed soon but first I just want a few minutes with my boyfriend…if you wouldn't mind." Rolling his eyes but still smiling, Heero began walking towards the door followed closely by Wufei and Trowa.

"We'll be waiting right outside, so no funny business." Once they had shut the door behind them, Duo turned to Quatre and smiled. Quatre smiled back at him and leaned forward to give him a short kiss. Carefully, Duo moved to deeper the kiss before climbing into the hospital bed with his boyfriend.

"So, we've been through a lot recently." Duo spoke jokingly to break the silence.

"True…" Quatre looked up thoughtfully before he looked back at Duo and speaking again. "But think about how much we've gained from it." Duo's smile grew at the thought of this and he leaned up to kiss Quatre again.

"Well, no matter what happens I'll always be there. I love you Quatre."

"I love you too Duo." Quatre nestled closer to Duo and closed his eyes, his smile still spread across his face.

"You know…you look pretty sexy in your hospital gown." Quatre's eyes flew open again at this and looked over to Duo only to see him wink. Quatre rolled his eyes in response.

"No Duo. We're in a hospital bed, you're injured…" Quatre was interrupted as he shuddered in delight of Duo's hand moving up his thigh, Quatre immediately shook the feeling from his mind and spoke again with more force. "Duo, there's no way…" Interrupted again, Quatre couldn't help but lose himself as Duo kissed him forcefully. Quatre raised a hand to Duo's chest and pulled him close giving into his desires.

Just as their make-out session was growing, the two were interrupted by Heero's voice in the hallway.

"Mr. Winner, how are you doing sir…Oh! You're here to see Quatre? Well, his room is right here!" His eyes wide, Quatre turned to Duo distressed and instantly shoved him off the bed. Duo cried out as he hit the floor but understanding the circumstances he quickly recovered and sat himself down into the chair he had been previously sitting in. Just as Quatre was settled in his bed, the door flew open and in walked Mr. Winner.

"Quatre! Are you all right son? You're not wounded are you?" As Mr. Winner almost jogged towards Quatre's bed, Duo glanced back at the door to see Heero glaring at him and mouthing 'you owe me.' Duo gave him a thumbs up before turning back to the father-son moment before him. Mr. Winner was seated on the edge of Quatre's bed holding onto his hand for dear life and Quatre, who was turning red from embarrassment, spoke.

"Father, I'm fine, maybe scarred for life but really I'm okay. If it hadn't been for my friends, I might've been dead but I'm really not even wounded. You shouldn't make such a fuss over it." Mr. Winner still looked down at him concerned but after a moment seemed convinced.

"I was so worried. We arrived back home and everything was a mess. Once I realized that nothing was stolen and that the only clue we had was that my address book was open to your address, I immediately had someone phone over. Are you sure that you're okay?" Quatre smiled at his father's concern for him but still felt embarrassed that he was hovering so much.

"Father I am fine. Don't worry." Mr. Winner, giving up finally, nodded to his son and released his hand as he stood.

"All right, I believe you. And I see that you have some company," Mr. Winner looked to Duo for a moment, "I am sorry for interrupting." Duo only blinked in return as Mr. Winner looked back to his son, "So I guess I'll get going. Take care of yourself son." Quatre smiled whole-heartedly up at his father.

"I will." Mr. Winner, after leaning down to kiss Quatre on the forehead, turned to leave shutting the door behind him. Once the door was closed, Quatre turned to Duo apologetically.

"Oh my stars Duo are you all right? I am so sorry, I just panicked and shoved you off again didn't I?" Duo chuckled at Quatre's frantic tone. Duo leaned in and pecked Quatre again.

"I'm fine but I really don't know how many more of those I can take…we really need to teach your father how to knock." Kissing once more, the two couldn't help but laugh before Duo climbed back into Quatre's bed and they snuggled close to one another. Duo closed his eyes and released a sigh to which Quatre poked him in response. Opening his eyes once more, Duo raised an eyebrow to his blonde love; Quatre only smiled back at him.

"What're you thinking about?" Duo's forehead creased shortly causing Quatre to watch him closer.

"Do you realize that we were kidnapped on the first of the year? It was New Year's Eve…just after the countdown." Quatre's eyebrows shot up as the thought settled in.

"That's true. I hadn't even thought about it that way. What a way to start the year…" Duo chuckled at this.

"Yeah, right…." Duo's sentence was cut short by the door opening once more revealing Heero and a not-too-happy face.

"Duo, the nurses are frantic searching for the 'missing patient' so I suggest you sneak your way back into your own bed or they'll have to set a few of your limbs after breaking them with their bare hands." Duo nodded to Heero as he closed the door again and turned with a pout back to Quatre.

"I guess I have to go now…" Quatre couldn't help but smile at Duo's sad face as he leaned in for one last kiss and snuggle. Duo climbed off the bed and turned back to Quatre with a wink.

"You should really see if they'll let you keep that hospital gown, sexy." Rolling his eyes again, Quatre laughed and shooed Duo out of the room.

"I'll see you at home you pervert." Duo grinned.

"Love you!" Duo yelled back to Quatre as he opened the door and moved as stealthily as possible down the hallway. Quatre shook his head and laughed more.

"Love you too." Quatre smiled but became pensive again as he thought of what Duo had said. It was true; they had been through so much in the little time that had spanned from the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, despite all of his pain, Quatre felt like he had won out in the end. He had learned a lot about himself, his friends and his father's over affectionate side but above all, he had gotten the best news ever in the form of Duo's love for him. Quatre smirked at the thought of his boyfriend running down the hallway from screaming nurses and he knew that he would have it no other way. Amongst his thoughts, Quatre faintly heard the door to his hospital room open again and looked up to find Trowa approaching his bed. Quatre grinned to his friend and Trowa smiled back. Touching his hand to his chest, Quatre could feel only warmth in his heart and he turned to Trowa as he settled in the chair next to his bed.

"You seem very happy, what are you contemplating?"

Quatre smiled again at his friend and took a deep breath before speaking blissfully, "Oh, just about how things can only get better from here."

* * *

1 – Thinking back to the earlier chapters, I recall that the pilots do have the resources to take care of things that normally hospitals do (kind of like when they just took Quatre and Duo back to the mansion after rescuing them) and I feel stupid now for having them go to an actual hospital. The way I figure it though, when someone isn't breathing and you don't know why the hospital is kind of your only option. I mean they have the means to take care of broken bones and bleeding wounds but it's not like they have a respirator or anything fancy like that. That's my logic and I'm sticking to it…I do apologize for my flip-flop on this though.

* * *

Well, there you have it folks. I know that the ending especially is probably rushed. I tried to slow down my writing as much as possible; you have no idea how much time I took to edit just this chapter alone but by the ending, I was just so excited to post. I hope that it was up to standards and that you enjoyed it.

Please Review! Tell me what you think, what I could've changed, anything really. And you know I don't plan on a sequel but if you have any ideas, shoot 'em past me or even write them yourselves!

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!


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